Chapter 5
Career Crucibles
One of the most important and valuable life lessons I ever learned was taught me by my maternal uncle—Hyrum W. Smith—an originator of the Franklin Day Planning system in the early 1980s and a co-founder (with Stephen R. Covey) of FranklinCovey company in 1997.
 |
| Hyrum W. Smith Originator of the Franklin Day Planning system Co-founder of FranklinCovey 1943-2019 |
"Your self-worth is directly connected to your personal productivity."
—Hyrum W. Smith
In other words, the way I feel about myself is closely tied to personal accomplishment, which includes:
- Completing tasks (getting things done)
- Achieving goals
- Honing talents
- Obtaining knowledge
- Acquiring skills
- Relationship building, nurturing, strengthening, and troubleshooting
- Improving, changing, and growing (Existential Growth)
- Developing character and integrity
- Accomplishing missions
- Realizing visions
- Et cetera
When YOU set and accomplish meaningful objectives of any kind in your life and/or career, you feel better about yourself than you do when you are listless or idle.
BOTTOM LINE: Productivity promotes good self-esteem, high self-worth, personal confidence and happiness, and inner peace.
In order to be productive, YOU must WORK.
There is no way around it!
It has been said that: Work never killed a person. But, it sure scared a lot of them!
I pride myself on being a hard worker. On the other hand, I confess that I, myself, have often been scared of it.
Fortunately, there is an antidote to the fear of work, and the cure is found in FAITH.
Faith is a principle of ACTION.
In fact, there is no faith without action. Thus, the best way to conquer a fear of work is to ACT by taking a step forward—however small—in the direction of accomplishment.
While action alone may not entirely eradicate fear in every instance or undertaking, it is certain to diminish it over time as you continue to courageously and consistently ACT in faith.
In light of this great truth, one of the most wonderful things that any of us can ever discover in life is the joy, satisfaction, and value of hard WORK.
From a very young age, I learned to appreciate the immense satisfaction, fulfillment, and accomplishment that comes from hard work and a job well done.
I love to WORK.
Throughout my life, I have worked very hard doing a wide variety of different tasks.
Work is what has made me who I am today.
This chapter chronicles my unorthodox career trajectory, which, like my adventures in romance, has been filled with endless ups and downs, thrills and chills, misses and blisses, and perhaps an unusual amount of frustration, stress, suspense, and uncertainty in conjunction with a commensurate—or perhaps an even greater—measure of pleasure, joy, fulfillment, and freedom.
In short, my career has been a PARADOX—ponderous and problematic on the one hand, yet scintillating and sublime on the other.
Moreover, because I have consistently been very productive—not to be confused with outwardly successful—I have always maintained relatively good self-esteem and a high sense of self-worth throughout my life.
Uncle Hyrum was absolutely correct...
The way we feel about ourselves is directly connected—if not directly proportional—to our productivity.
Therefore, YOU can likewise acquire and then maintain good self-esteem and high self-worth as you productively engage in work and other activities that are aligned with your deepest held values.
REMEMBER: There is nothing inherently special about me. But everything is special about SAL principles and practices. As you consistently and persistently implement these SAL P&Ps into your life over time, YOU will find similar benefits to the ones I have enjoyed throughout my life and career.
These benefits include productivity, achievement, happiness, success, and inner peace.
Along the circuitous pathways of my unusually eclectic and unorthodox career journey, I had to perform many tasks in a lot of different jobs I did not always enjoy. But, it was all worth it because it led me down a pathway to a career that I love and cherish with all my heart, mind, and soul.
It has been said that: if you can find a way to do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
While this statement may be hyperbolic, there is a considerable kernel of truth imbedded therein. I know this from my own rich and extended experiences pursuing a career path that I have enjoyed immensely and from which I have derived enormous satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy due to the cornucopia of opportunities I have been blessed with to contribute positively and productively to the lives and careers of other people.
Because I was willing to do whatever it took to get onto the career track I most wanted to travel, I eventually got there. Moreover, because I pursued that pathway with immense passion, dogged determination, and indomitable persistence, I actually arrived there relatively quickly.
Even more importantly, I have been on that track for the vast majority of my 20-plus year career. In other words, I did not merely arrive at my initially desired destination—the FREEDOM to pursue work that I love—I managed to stay on this pathway for the better part of my entire career, which is now well into its third decade.
This is not to say that I have always achieved every goal I have set out for myself professionally.
I have not.
But that is not only okay; it is also exciting.
Why?
Because I get to spend the rest of my career—the next couple of decades—continuing the work I love while constantly aiming to reach ever higher goals in support of serving other people.
And what exactly is it I love to do?
ANSWER: Write, speak, teach, organize, lead, and travel.
I've spent the majority of the past 22 years writing, speaking, teaching, organizing, leading, and traveling.
I'm not gonna lie...
It's been a pretty sweet deal!
With that said, please don't misunderstand. Just because I have been able to largely pursue work that I love doesn't mean that my pathway was unobstructed or that my journey was easy. Quite to the contrary—as this chapter will amply evince—my career journey has been as hard as the next persons; and in some ways, much harder.
But that is okay, because that was the price I had to pay to get what I wanted out of my career; and I was—as you will come to plainly see—amply willing to pay that high and heavy price.
Moreover, I'll be perfectly transparent in saying that I've never made much money doing what I love...
At least not yet.
This is also okay because I learned a long time ago that making money was no where near the top of my list of life and career priorities. Truth be told, I don't really care that much about money unless I don't have enough.
As this chapter will dramatically demonstrate, there was a period of my life and career when I did not have enough money, and it was a miserable experience. Through SAL and Serendipity, however, I was blessed to transcend my financial troubles a long time ago. Thus, at this point in time, money no longer concerns me. If it someday comes my way in great quantities as a by-product of doing what I love, then great!
If it does not, then that's okay—because I have sufficient for my needs, security, and future; and I do not do what I do for money. I do what I do because I love it and because my work has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the lives and careers of others.
I am a firm believer that in the end, your JOURNEY through life is far more important than your destination in life—not because the destination isn't important; it is very important! But because the journey is what takes up the vast majority of your time—like 99% of the time. Moreover, the nature of your journey will absolutely determine your destination; the two are directly related to each other. As such, self-action leaders would do well to focus as much of their energy and time on enjoying and mastering the journey as they do on progressing to the destination.
By balancing these two crucial foci, YOU can not only become accomplished and successful, but content, happy, and at peace along the way.
Most of this blog will, rather appropriately, focus on my JOURNEY.
However, it bears clarifying up front exactly what my overarching vision, mission, and goals are. In other words, it will be helpful if readers are crystal clear on what my desired destination is.
FIRST: I seek the FREEDOM to be my own boss, determine my own schedule, and spend the majority of my time in work I inherently enjoy and am good at that concurrently helps other people.
SECOND: I seek to create a comprehensive Life Leadership textbook that is applicable and relevant to a universal audience (i.e. all human beings who seek Existential Growth).
THIRD: I seek to rise in my own Existential Growth to eventually inhabit the highest level of the SAL Hierarchy (Creation Stage) in order to positively and productively influence as many people as possible through my personal example in conjunction with my work as a writer, speaker, teacher, organizer, and leader.
Let's now dive a little deeper into these three life goals, or, more accurately stated, these three life MISSIONS.
MISSION #1: Personal & Career FREEDOM
Don't get the wrong idea here...
I am a big believer in teamwork, mentoring, coaching, and collaboration. I further pride myself on my ability to both positively receive and productively implement instruction and coaching when relevant and necessary.
However, I am also a big believer in the principles and practices of Self-Action Leadership (of course!) as well as the theory of Self-Directed Work Teams, both of which aim to maximize the self-reliance, autonomy, and creativity of individuals, thus empowering them to accomplish their personal work tasks and projects as independently as possible.
Rest assured, I clearly understand the importance of being able to effectively receive feedback with a positive attitude in conjunction with proactively following instructions from a coach, manager, mentor, parent, supervisor, teacher, constituency, audience, et cetera.
I further pride myself on my ability and willingness to be an effective and proactive follower. Truth be told, I am actually much better at being a follower than I am at being a manager (not to be confused with being a leader). I have no problem following someone else's managerial lead—especially when that "someone else" is a servant leader or manager that is empathetic, honest, kind, and praiseworthy.
After all, it is no secret that the best leaders and managers typically start out as the best followers.
Why is this?
Because effective followership is a precursor to productive leadership in the same way that effectively leading yourself is a prerequisite to productively leading others. (2)
Moreover, I do not feel the need to be a (or the) leader at all times and in all instances.
Most of the time, I am happy to let someone else lead.
In fact, in most situations, my natural default position is to defer to the leadership—and more especially the management—of others rather than vying to be the leader or manager myself.
But, when it comes to my own work—and the ways in which I accomplish that work—I am fiercely independent and visionary and seek earnestly for pathways that afford me as much autonomy and leverage as possible to accomplish my work in a self-directed manner.
The career pathway I have trodden thus far has provided me with many and varied opportunities to fulfill this passionate desire to spend most of my time in independent work that I inherently love to do and in which I am highly talented and skilled.
For this primal and preeminent reason, I view my career pathway to have been extremely successful.
Any external validation or tangible remuneration along the way is merely icing on the cake.
But, the "cake" itself is not the destination or reward, but the joyful journey of getting to actually do work I love that leaves me feeling challenged, satisfied, fulfilled—and accessing continual FLOW (3) states—while further basking in the reassuring knowledge that I have had a positive and productive influence on the lives of others in the process.
MISSION #2: Create a Comprehensive Life Leadership Textbook
I have always loved books, and more especially textbooks.
I know, I know... most folks look at me a little askance when I express this unorthodox love and lifelong passion of mine. But that's okay, because I have never been unduly concerned about what most other people think about me.
We all have our various passions in life.
TEXTBOOKS are simply one of the things I have always really loved!
Thus, I have spent a lot of time in them over the years.
 |
| With my four older brothers. Provo, Utah Summer 1989 Age 9-10 |
When I was a little boy, I idolized my four (4) elder and avuncular brothers. Ranging from 8-12 years my senior, this quartet of brothers were more like uncles than siblings.
As a wee lad as young as seven (7)—first grade—and eight (8)—second grade—one of my cherished pastimes was to borrow my older brothers' high school—and later college—textbooks and then peruse them, read them, copy out of them, and otherwise pretend I was in high school or college myself.
 |
| Doing "Trigonometry" as part of my Pretend School. Mesa, Arizona Circa 1987-88 Age 7-8 |
I absolutely loved doing this!
Pretend school was my happy place, and I spent many wonderfully satisfying and fulfilling hours engaged therein. I loved to study and pretend to study. Additionally, I adored the peace, solitude, and tranquility required to properly pursue both activities.
Around this same time, I discovered my deep love for BOOKS in general. Throughout my lifetime, I have spent a lot of time in libraries—including public libraries, school libraries, home libraries, and extended family members' home libraries.
My maternal grandparents were particularly fond of the written word. My grandfather—a London-educated (4) American professor of speech and drama—had passed away 15 years before I was born, but he left approximately 5,000 books behind in a home library that filled an entire room of his and my grandmother's house in northern Utah, with two (2) of the walls stacked with books seven (7) feet high—literally from the floor to the ceiling.
It was magnificent!
I felt like Belle in the Beast's castle library. (5)
Indeed, this treasure trove of tomes and other volumes was a veritable wonderland for a book worm like me, and I spent many hours perusing its jewels in the summertime—and then "checking-out" my favorites to take home with me to Mesa, Arizona, where my family lived during my elementary school years (1986-1993).
 |
| In Grandma Smith's home library with my new shoes, boots, and flattop haircut. Centerville, Utah Circa 1988 Age 8-9 |
In time, it became increasingly evident to me that I wanted to do much more than merely read and study books; I wanted to write them—just like Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, my Uncle Hyrum, and others like them.
As I grew more skilled as a writer over the years and decades, this vision of authoring self-help and personal development literature mingled with my love of textbooks to eventually crystallize into a very specific GOAL.
I wanted to be a prolific author of articles; but not of books.
Instead of writing many books—as successful writers are wont to do—I wanted to write ONE, single, comprehensive, super-sized, granddaddy Life Leadership textbook that synthesized the totality of my thinking and inspiration on the subject of human betterment, Existential Growth, personal change, and Serendipity.
Simply stated, I sought to compose a secular Bible—for lack of a better analogy—which would incorporate the complete cannon of my 40-years of focused—and even obsessive—experimentation, investigation, research, and results on the topics of intuition, personal leadership, and self-help.
I have been preparing for this undertaking for nearly 40 years.
And I have been working on this project for the past 24 years.
Over the course of those two dozen trips around the Sun, the SAL textbook itself has undergone SEVEN (7) complete iterations / editions, published in 2006, 2007 (unpublished manuscript), 2013a (Doctoral dissertation), 2013b, 2015, 2019, and now 2027.
In all that time, the ultimate MISSION and VISION of this work has never changed; it has only been clarified, fortified, simplified, and unified.
This chapter is just one, small slice of a much larger book that is one of EIGHT (8) volumes that make up this massive tome, which, when it is complete, will carry a total word count that will fall somewhere in between the Old Testament and the Complete Works of Shakespeare—two of my all-time favorite tomes!
I do not make these comparisons to impress you.
Rather, I draw upon them to impress upon you the nature of this work, the seriousness of its subject matter, and its ultimate potential to reach anyone and everyone—including YOU—who desires to make the most of their life, live with fewer regrets, and truly become all that you are capable of becoming in this world—and perhaps beyond as well.
MISSION #3: Positively & Productively Influence as Many People as Possible
My Uncle Hyrum often spoke of the driving passion he felt throughout his life to make a difference in the world and, more specifically, in the lives of other people.
 |
| Hyrum Wayne Smith and Rex Buckley Jensen My Uncle and Dad together as young missionaries. London, England 1964 |
As a young missionary serving in England in the mid-1960s, Hyrum had the unique opportunity to hear an aged Winston Churchill speak before he passed away in January 1965. In his address, Sir Winston reminisced on the driving desire he had felt all of his life to make a difference.
Hyrum possessed this same "fire-in-the-belly" Churchillian desire to make a difference.
Sometimes he (Hyrum) even referred to his yearning as an "obsession." (6)
 |
| Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill 1874-1965 |
I can remember as far back as high school spending time on my knees at night before bed pleading with the Almighty repeatedly and sincerely for help and opportunities to be a positive influence in the lives of others, including my peers.
I cannot empirically or scientifically prove that God answered my prayer.
But there is no question I have received many such opportunities.
And there is no doubt I will yet receive many more.
Like Hyrum, this desire has unquestionably been an ongoing, lifelong obsession of mine—and one in which my "OCD has not been all bad" (7) for me; although, as a previous chapter so punctiliously detailed, it has taken a lot of time and effort to work out the kinks in its clinical components.
It is difficult to quantify the full extent of the influence that Winston Churchill, Hyrum Smith, and others like them have had on my life and career. Suffice it to say, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about and pondering upon the unique lives and careers of such leaders, and how I might make some significant literary, oratorical, and other contributions similar to those made by them.
And now...
Let's dive into the balance of this chapter, which carefully chronicles my circuitous, difficult, frustrating, time-consuming, unorthodox, and often disappointing—yet ultimately very satisfying, successful, and rewarding—career journey and trajectory, which has led to the serial composition of this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook.
Blue Collar Beginnings
Like me, my father also had an unorthodox professional journey.
Dad had two college degrees: a bachelor's in English and a master's in communications. While he was primarily a secondary educator (English teacher) at the middle and high school levels, he dabbled in and excelled at a variety of fields and trades over the course of his eclectic career.
From a general contractor, grocer, land developer, and landlord, to a professional photographer, salesman, journalist, and property manager, there was little that dad couldn't or hadn't tried.
He was an authentic rural renaissance man.
A genuine Jack-of-all-Trades!
Whatever Dad's employ—or entrepreneurial pursuits—he was consistently ambitious, hard-working, and visionary. Through his own example and the work he provided to us, he taught his seven (7) children to be proactive, productive, and excel at whatever we undertook.
My mother was not a whit behind Dad in her talents and work ethic.
While her primary focus as a homemaker was always raising us seven (7) kids, she was also a credentialed interior decorator, certified teacher, published author and illustrator, and successful saleswoman.
As an Avon Lady, she earned the coveted and prestigious President's Club award an impressive seven (7) times (years). As a saleswoman, she further dabbled in the sales of pajamas and homemade bread and fudge. At one point in her career, she even opened up her own fully stocked variety store in my hometown of Monticello, Utah.
Her first name is Pauline.
She names her store: Polly's Parlor.
Mom worked very hard in the home, kitchen, and yard. Perhaps most importantly for my brothers and sisters and me, she was always home when we returned from school—a blessing for which I will always be eternally grateful.
But wait...
There is more!
In addition to her household responsibilities, Mama held service and leadership positions at church and in the community. She was also a college graduate. While she originally dropped out of school in the late 1960s to bear and raise her seven (7) children, she proactively returned to school during the late 1980s and early 1990s to attend summer sessions and complete the requirements for her 4-year degree. After five (5) straight summers of focus, determination, and hard work, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in elementary education in August 1992.
Suffice it to say, I was taught from a very young age by both parents through their precepts and examples to be hard working, ambitious, industrious, and continually aim for excellence in everything that I did.
Between Dad's work as a general contractor and growing up in a remote, rural area of the country, I had many opportunities to learn about and work in a variety of blue-collar, manual labor jobs.
I earned my first paycheck after a summer's work helping my dad and older brothers build a cabin on land that Dad owned. Just shy of my sixth birthday, my 5-year-old position title was "Fetch-it," because my job was to fetch things for Dad and my older brothers whenever they needed a given tool or other item.
I took enormous satisfaction in and was deeply proud of that first paycheck. Dad paid me $40 dollars for my summer labors, $20 dollars of which went into savings for my missionary fund.
I was blessed with an eclectic array of different blue-collar work opportunities throughout my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. These work activities instilled within me not only a strong work ethic and physical stamina and resiliency; they also imbued within me a love of nature, rocks, plants, soil, trees, grass, mountains, rivers, lakes, and our beautiful planet full of diverse climate zones, ecosystems, and habitats.
It further taught me the immense personal satisfaction and fulfillment that accompanied strenuous physical labor in pursuit of a job well done and punctually completed.
In time, I would also be blessed with some savory introductions to white-collar work as well, which I came to ultimately prefer. Thus, by the time I got married in my late 20s, I had gained experience—sometimes extensively so—in the following work arenas:
BLUE—COLLAR WORK EXPERIENCES
- Construction
- Concrete
- Framing
- Gypsum board (sheet rocking)
- Insulation
- Roofing
- Sanding
- Painting and staining
- Shelf-building
- Soil compaction
- Miscellaneous odd jobs
- Gardening, Groundskeeping, and Landscaping
- Ploughing
- Fertilizing
- Planting
- Watering
- Weeding
- Harvesting
- Pruning
- Trimming
- Grooming
- Edging
- Mowing
- Mulching
- Hoeing
- Raking
- Extracting
- Transplanting
- Burning
- Trash collection
- Equipment maintenance and troubleshooting
- Farming
- Tractor operation (plowing & weeding)
- Driving truck (wheat transport)
- Auger operation (wheat storage)
- Machinery maintenance
- Weeding (rye extraction)
- Varmint extermination
- Ranching
- Cattle branding
- Cattle driving
- Hay loading
- Pipe laying
- Fence building
- Tree clearing, de-limbing, loading, and hauling
- Post-hole digging
- Cinder and mulch spreading
- Rock and debris removal (landslide cleanup)
- Tree clearing, delimbing, loading, and hauling
- Woodcutting and Wood-Burning Stove Operation
- Tree felling
- Chainsawing logs
- Wood splittting, hauling, transporting, and stacking
- Fire starting and maintenance
- Fireplace cleaning (ash removal)
- Interior House Work and Cleaning
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Dishwashing and drying
- Dusting
- Ironing
- Laundry
- Organizing
- Sweeping
- Wiping baseboards, counters, mirrors, stoves, etc.
- Vacuuming
- Deep cleaning
- Scrubbing toilets, showers, sinks, and floors
- Eighteen (18) Wheeler Truck Wreck Cleanup
- Flier Distribution
- Ballpark Concession Stands
- Professional Catering
- Temporary Work (through Temp Agencies)
- Restaurant Table Serving and Dishwashing
- Car Drying for a Mobile Car Wash Service
- Nannying
- Street Corner Costume Advertising
WHITE—COLLAR WORK EXPERIENCES
- Newswriting & Photography
- Playwriting & Directing
- Film Work (as an Extra)
- Assistant to the Director of a College Leadership Center
- Substitute Teaching
Suffice it to say, nearly all of my chores and the vast majority of my employment opportunities growing up and throughout my early-mid 20s involved manual labor, which is one of the reasons I was so excited when I landed a job as a newswriter and photographer as a sophomore in high school. Although I had wanted to be a blue-collar worker as a young child (e.g. in construction, like my general contractor Dad), I knew by age eight (8) that I wanted to be a white-collar worker when I "grew-up."
My first ever white-collar employer was the Blue Mountain Panorama, a small-town weekly newspaper operated out of the Editor's home in Blanding, Utah, a community twice the size of Monticello located 20 miles to the south.
As much as I enjoyed the outdoors and others aspects of manual labor, the fact that I could get paid for doing something I really enjoyed—and that didn't require me to physically strain, sweat, or get too hot or cold—was a novel notion and a beautiful thing to me.
Receiving a byline for the 150-or-so articles over the course of the year-and-a-half I worked for the paper between 1995-1997 was also enormously satisfying and further fueled my desire to be an author.
A similarly sweet experience was being hired as an Assistant to the Director of The Center for the Advancement of Leadership at my alma mater (Utah Valley University) the year after I graduated from college. Not only was I doing white-collar work for pay, but I had my own private office with desk, computer, filing cabinet, phone, lock, and key to boot! My office did not have a window and the pay was paltry; but, in my mind, it remained a thrilled start to my post-collegiate career.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy manual labor.
I did enjoy aspects of it.
In fact, I still do.
Moreover, I am incredibly grateful for the many and varied blue-collar work experiences I have been blessed with over the years. Those jobs taught me to work hard, endure physical, mental, and emotional strain, and experience and appreciate the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that can only come from a job well done.
In college, my blue-collar roots helped me make ends meet financially by working alongside my older brothers in their shelving business. My dad had built shelves in people's garages to supplement his modest high school teacher's salary when we lived in Mesa, Arizona from 1986-1993. Later, my older brothers—who learned the trade from Dad—continued the family business in northern Utah, eventually incorporating the company as JB Shelving, "JB" being short for Jensen Brothers. JB Shelving still operates today. Headquartered in American Fork, Utah, it is managed by one of my older brothers, who continues to employ members of his immediate and extended family to run the business.
I also did a lot of pro bono babysitting for my older siblings when I was in college. This brought me closer to and strengthened my relationships with my older siblings. It also helped me prepare for my future as a professional nanny and stay-at-home dad—two jobs I never imagined would be such a significant part of my future career.
No matter where I lived or what kind of work I did, I was always able to glean vital SAL lessons from each and every experience. Most importantly, I learned how to work hard, endure to the end of a task, class, or project, and finish whatever I started—even if the job was boring, difficult, dirty, smelly, tedious, or otherwise unpleasant.
Missionary Service
I served in the Canada Edmonton Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from February 1999 - March 2001.
All of my work experiences growing up prepared me for the unusually difficult, tiring, and often thankless volunteer work involved in full-time missionary service.
For two (2) long years, I would arise each morning at 6:30 a.m. (or earlier if I exercised), study for two hours, work for 12 hours during the day (with an hour break for lunch and dinner), and then retire to bed at 10:30 before waking up and doing it all over again.
No dating.
No secular movies or music.
No hobby-ing.
No holidays.
No vacationing.
We did have one day off—sort of.
Our "Preparation" or "P-day" wasn't really a day-off in the traditional sense because we spent much of our time doing laundry, shopping, running errands, writing letters, and attending meetings. We were also required to work three hours after dinner in the evening. Moreover, recreational activities were almost always scheduled with a group of fellow missionaries, so we had limited personal choice in what we did for fun on our "P-day."
My mission was an enormously challenging experience filled with endless rejection and the occasional spat of verbal mockery and persecution. For a non-morning person who cherishes solitude, thrives on independence, and suffered with OCD, the anxieties, pressures, and stresses of continually adhering to a long list of military-esque rules and scheduling while living and working with another missionary around the clock was, without question, the most difficult thing I have ever done.
This probably sounds awful, and sometimes it genuinely was.
On the flip side, however, my missionary service was concurrently an incredible SAl-oriented spiritual feast and religious service opportunity that, when willingly embraced, fostered immense personal change, growth, and maturation.
It was additionally a source of great satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy both personally and on behalf of others who chose to embrace our invitations to make positive and productive changes in their beliefs, behavior, habits, and lifestyles.
It has often been said in Latter-Day Saint culture that a full-time mission makes a proverbial "Man" or "Woman" out of any boy or girl courageous enough to embark on its arduous, trying, and refining adventure and experience.
There is no question that it reinforced my character, strengthened my spirituality, and empowered me with a remarkable capacity for courage, focus, endurance, and resilience.
It was not only incredibly educational from a religious standpoint, but in a mental, emotional, social, cultural, and environmental sense as well. During the time I lived and served in western Canada (Alberta), I met people from all over the world and had the opportunity to learn about and mingle with a potpourri of different languages, cultures, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and occupations.
Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned about myself on my mission was the extent to which I could do hard things and endure difficult challenges for long periods of time—even (and especially) when I did not inherently enjoy what I was doing. These experiences bolstered my self-confidence and further prepared me to embrace and transcend additional challenges and crucibles I would face throughout the rest of my life and career.
Most importantly of all, my mission provided me with endless opportunities to serve other people. For this particular time of life—late teens and early twenties—which culturally in the Western World tends to be a very self-centered (and often selfish) period of one's life, it is hard to conjure up a more worthwhile endeavor than to dedicate one's time and energy to an extended service project that gets you outside of yourself and aid society-at-large by blessing the lives of individuals and families.
Such was the eclectic array of opportunities, difficulties, and blessings of my full-time, 2-year, voluntary missionary service.
Undergraduate Studies
I returned home to Utah from my mission in Alberta in March 2001. A few months later in May 2001, I enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) as a visiting student for the spring and summer terms.
I had been rejected as a full-time student at BYU for fall and winter semesters because of average grades and test scores in high school. I was hoping my missionary service and above-average essay writing skills would compensate for my lackluster prep performance; but alas, I was disappointed on this point—and it absolutely served me right.
Simply stated, I was not a very effective self-action leader academically speaking before my mission. My dad had explicitly warned me of the consequences of my subpart academic effort and results. He had told me that one day I would pay the price for my decisions.
Dad was right!
I regret these SAL lapses as a teenage student
But, I cannot do anything to change the past.
Fortunately, Serendipity very much had my back and I discovered in time that attending Utah Valley State College (UVSC)—now Utah Valley University—instead of BYU turned out to be a blessing in disguise because of opportunities I received at UVU that I neither would not have pursued at BYU, or that would have been too competitive at the "Y."
These opportunities included performing in a Shakespearean play on campus—The Taming of the Shrew—my first year and competing on the varsity cross-country and track teams my second year.
I even earned a half tuition scholarship after the 2002 cross-country season that I was able to use the semester of my 2003 track season.
That never would have happened at BYU; I simply wasn't fast enough.
But it did happen at UVU. My talents were simply better suited for the Junior College level (NJCAA) than they were for the Division 1 collegiate level (NCAA).
Thus, things really do happen for a reason. Sometimes that reason is because YOU are irresponsible and make bad decisions. Sometimes that reason is because YOU are responsible and make good decisions. And sometimes that reason is that Serendipity has your back and is positioning you in places where you are best suited to succeed and thrive.
When I returned from my mission, I felt very "behind" academically due to my 3-year hiatus from formal schooling (one year of work and two years of missionary service). This sense was made even more poignant and salient when I learned that one of my former classmates—a girl and crush from my 6th grade class in Arizona—had graduated with her bachelor's degree a few days before I started my first freshman class.
Suffice it to say, I was extremely eager to progress as quickly as possible through my undergraduate studies and try and "catch-up" to some of my peers who were seemingly way ahead of me academically and professionally.
My expanded ambition, directed focus, and well-cultivated work ethic—honed over the course of my 2-year missionary service—paid off handsomely in college, and I was able to complete my 4-year bachelor's degree in English in just a little over two (2) years' time (27 months).
I accomplished this feat by attending school year-round—10 consecutive terms or semesters—not accruing any unnecessary course credits, (7) and taking full—and sometimes more than full—course loads. (8)
My grades also improved in college.
I finished high school with a 2.9 GPA (grade point average).
I finished college with a 3.2 GPA.
Later, in Doctoral school, I would earn a better-than perfect 4.049 GPA.
It's safe to say I was a late bloomer—in more ways than one!
I could have performed much better in my undergraduate program if A-grades had been a high priority for me; but, my focus in college was not on getting perfect grades.
I had a good enough sense of my eventual career path to know that the important thing was not getting straight A's, but completing my degree in an efficient and timely manner while concurrently obtaining as much extracurricular knowledge and experience about life, family, dating, athletics, the theater, employment, oratory, culture, politics, the world, current events, et cetera as possible.
In the words of Mark Twain, I was never one to let my schooling get in the way of my education.
"I have never let schooling get in the way of my education."
—Mark Twain
This holistic paradigm and practical approach to my collegiate education was beautifully punctuated when the legendary Larry King—of Larry King Live fame—gave an unusually entertaining and unacademic commencement address at my graduation.
First Move to Georgia and a Stint in Retail Sales
The day after I completed my undergraduate degree in July 2003, I loaded all of my essential earthly possessions into my car and headed east with my dad. After a wonderful and memorable two-week road trip—just Dad and me—to New York, Washington D.C., and then south to Atlanta, I moved in with a first cousin and her family, consisting of her husband and two sons, in Roswell, an Atlanta suburb.
For many years I had been nurturing romantic notions about the American South. It was the only major region of my country to which I had not yet traveled. I loved warmer climates in addition to everything I had heard about southern hospitality and warmth. I loved history—especially Civil War history—and the South was brimming full of that history.
And considering how thoroughly and repeatedly I had struck out romantically in Utah, I thought perhaps I might have better fortune finding love in Georgia.
It was a terrible decision financially.
With the exception of a mutual fund that had grown to approximately $3,500—money I had earned working for a wheat farmer in my hometown before my mission—I had little cash and no immediate prospects for work in the midst of the post-9/11 economic recession.
Despite these practical realities, it felt like the right decision.
I also had the blessing; nay, the enthusiastic cheerleading of both my parents.
Once in Georgia, I was offered a job at a cement mixing company through a connection at church, and very briefly took on a commission-only based direct sales position. However, I turned down the former offer and quit after the first day of the latter offer.
Instead, I pursued work as a part-time employee in my cousin and her husband's home-based software company and got a job working for a couple of FranklinCovey retail stores in local malls.
I was passionate about FranklinCovey products and services. It was, after all, my Uncle Hyrum's Franklin Day Planner seminar that had first helped to launch me onto the personal leadership and seminar facilitating train as a kid. I had been using FranklinCovey products off and on since I was seven (7) years old.
Despite this fact, I disliked retail sales; not quite as much as I detested direct sales, but I quickly discovered it was not going to be a good long-term fit for me. Being cooped up in those relatively small storefront mall spaces felt like a prison sentence—and the end of each of my shifts felt like cashing in a get-out-of-jail-free card.
First Shot at Teaching Seminars
Around this same time, I began to think seriously about becoming an entrepreneurial writer and public speaker on personal leadership and other, related topics. Punching in-and-out of work at the FranklinCovey stores further fueled the fire of my discontent and desire to escape the shackles of retail prison and pursue work that inspired and motivated me.
In my heart and mind's eye, I was already conscious of and clear-eyed about my heart's yearning to ultimately progress to the place my Uncle and his colleague—Stephen R. Covey—occupied.
I did not want to sell bestselling books.
I wanted to write, publish, promote, and teach them!
My realization of the gap that existed between where I was and where I wanted to be was sobering, but motivating. It was sobering because I knew it would not be easy. Yet, it was motivating because I felt confident I possessed the talent, work ethic, fire-in-the-belly, endurance, and resilience to make my dreams come true over time.
I had already been interested in public speaking for many years and my full-time missionary service had provided me with many teaching and speaking opportunities, which further bolstered my interest in and passion for the art and science of oratory and influence.
Knowing that entrepreneurs must be willing to start projects, businesses, and movements from scratch, I began at the very beginning by developing my own training seminar on personal leadership for high school students. Through a church acquaintance, I contacted an administrator at a local high school (Lassiter) in Marietta, Georgia—a northern Atlanta suburb next door to Roswell where I lived. This Assistant Principal gave me an opportunity to deliver my new seminar for the first time in the fall of 2003 to a couple of student leadership groups.
The Administrator explained to me that they would consider hiring me for additional trainings if they liked what they saw. It was a positive and necessary first step for me in the thousand-mile journey that was to become my fledgling work with Freedom Focused.
But...
The did not hire me for any additional business.
"The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step."
A few months later, I auditioned for a position as a speaker with an organization affiliated with my Church. I prepared for the audition, recruited audience members to come support me, and gave it my best shot. But, the observer (judge) suggested that I: try again in five (5) years.
These were bitter pills to swallow—failure usually is difficult to stomach—and there was a lot more of it to come.
Fortunately, I have always been a native and eternal optimist—a vital SAL quality—so I chalked these rejections up to worthwhile learning experiences, believing that no good-faith effort is ever wasted in the end, and pushed forward undaunted.
As similar failures and rejections piled up one after the other in coming days, weeks, months, years, and decades, I had to continually remind myself that each disappointment was an important stepping stone to my long-term achievements, contributions, influence, and success.
I had studied the lives of many successful people throughout history, and all of their journeys included disappointment, failure, rejection, and usually the passage of many years and/or decades of time. Thus, it always made sense to me that in the aggregate, my story would ultimately mirror theirs.
BOTTOM LINE: I had to be prepared and willing to resiliently absorb my share of heartbreak, loss, and sorrow along the way. After all, failure and rejection were simply the other side of the coin I was chasing after. I always knew that if I was going to "reach for the brass ring," I had better be prepared to slip up and fall on my face a few (or a lot of) times before I eventually rose high enough to grasp it.
I confess that at the time, I had no idea just how long it would eventually take me to reach my "brass ring." On the other hand, I also had no idea just how much Serendipity had in store for me along the way.
Nevertheless, come what may, I was determined to never give up.
Broke, Heart Broken, and Back to Utah
After six (6) months in Georgia, I was financially broke and just getting by. Retrieving what little savings I had left in my mutual fund, I loaded my belongings in my car and made the westward trek back to Utah. My intention in doing so was motivated in large part by my pursuit of a nascent romance that had flowered with a woman via email and phone conversation.
She lived in Utah.
I lived in Georgia.
Things had gone really well emailing each other and talking on the phone and we both wanted to see if there was any in-person chemistry.
There was not!
This was especially the case on her part.
I was devastated, not because I was convinced she was the gal for me; but, because her immediate rejection—after our first date following my return to Utah—poured a poignant portion of salt and vinegar into the deep insecurities and vulnerabilities I was already facing personally and professionally.
Desperate to try and make the relationship work, I initially came on a little too strong.
Doing so predictably repelled her and she understandably recoiled.
It was yet another cringeworthy moment for me in the realms of romance—an unspeakably humiliating experience that I can only look back on with dismay, regret, and self-disappointment.
Adding to this misfortune, my OCD relapsed terribly as I began to uncontrollably ruminate over the woman who had rejected me and endlessly obsess over what a fool I had made of myself.
I was completely crestfallen, deeply downtrodden, and profoundly pained.
Wordsmith thought I may be, I find words are incapable of fully capturing the horrifying smart and emotional gravitas of this and other, similar circumstances I experienced mentally, socially, and emotionally during my young adult years. The weight of this particular round of despised love drove me back into psychotherapy at the BYU Comprehensive Clinic, where I began a gradual recovery.
Financial Desperation and Temp Work
Completely broke financially and desperate for work, I was prepared to jump at any employment opportunity I could cobble together.
Shortly after signing on with a temporary work agency, I received a two-day position at the NuSkin distribution plant in downtown Provo, Utah, where I packaged orders on an assembly line.
As I bitterly boxed up lotions, shampoos, vitamins, and other NuSkin products for hours on end, I anxiously commiserated on my pathetic plight. Here I was, a college graduate, All-American athlete, and gifted communicator and what was I doing? Packaging product on an assembly line deep in the bowels of a dimly-lit industrial warehouse earning minimum wage for my efforts.
In hindsight, this—and other events like it—proved to be a proverbial "blessing in disguise." Life was humbling and teaching me, which is precisely what I needed. Arrogance does not win friends, influence people, or get you ahead in the long-run.
Deep down, I knew that what I needed to do was humble myself and go to work on my own foibles and flaws to thereby extricate myself from the menacing personal and career morass into which I was mired.
A Turn at Table Serving
I soon discovered that temp jobs did not always provide consistent work schedules, so I began searching for additional employment. A cousin of mine, who worked as a server in a Mexican restaurant, helped me land the same job at the same place. My wage as a table server was a little over two dollars per hour, plus tips. I was also allowed to eat all the rice, beans, fresh tortillas, and soda I could eat and drink—for free.
At the conclusion of my third day on the job, I had earned approximately $100 in tips, all of which went to an impound yard to retrieve my car, which had been towed while I was visiting with a woman I wanted to ask out on a date.
It as an agonizing discovery and bitter comeuppance.
Moments like this in my life—and there have been many—remind me of something Abraham Lincoln supposedly said after losing a close Senate race to his rival, Stephen A. Douglas, in 1858.
Said Lincoln: I feel like the boy that stubbed his toe. It hurt too bad to laugh, but he was too big to cry. (10)
"I feel like the boy that stubbed his toe.
It hurt too bad to laugh, but he was too big to cry."
—Abraham Lincoln
That's the way I felt that dark and painful night.
It was a rough start to a tough job.
I was, at best, an average server and quickly came to realize what a multitasking monstrosity table serving is. Indeed, I came to appreciate and respect effective servers for their capacity to keep it all straight—and have felt a greater sense of gratitude to all food service professionals ever since.
Whether it was a forgotten straw, a mixed-up order, or a dropped plate of food, I consistently made more errors than any of my colleagues.
It was embarrassing!
I have always been good a focusing on a task or project and seeing it through to completion. But, I am not a very good multitasker, and handling the manifold minutia of such a detail-oriented job felt overwhelming at times.
It was humbling to observe fellow servers who were much better at their job than me, and I recognized the irony that exists when a white-collar worker looks down on a blue-collar worker. Such condescension would rapidly disappear if a white-collar worker spent a few hours tending the shift of a blue-collar employee!
My experience with this seemingly simple, yet actually rather difficult work helped me to better see and appreciate the unique abilities, brainpower, energy, experience, and talents required for all kinds of different labor. It further burned into my heart the foundational SAL truth of Existential Equality—that all human beings have equal, intrinsic worth—and that each one of us is blessed with a singular combination of gifts and a unique and important purpose in life.
Despite the difficulty and frustration of this time period—and many others like it—I always took solace in my growing realization that every experience in my life was valuable and worth having because of what I was learning and becoming through the process.
I also recognized—even at the time—that each new experience was further enriching my capacity to teach and influence others as a speaker, writer, and teacher. This recognition gave otherwise menial, tedious, and other unpleasant tasks—such as washing dishes at a restaurant—more meaning and helped me maintain a positive attitude and an optimistic and hopeful outlook on the future.
Thus, I would often affirm the following statements to myself.
"This is an important part of my story,"
"In the end, it's going to be a great story."
"And I can use that story to help others who face similar difficulties in the future."
Despite this positive spin I strived to put on my table serving job, I lasted less than two months before giving my boss my two-weeks' notice, and I am confident he was as relieved to receive my resignation as I was eager to tender it.
Indeed...
I do not think he missed having JJ on his staff!
And I do not blame him.
To this day, I hold table servers in high regard—especially the really good ones—and like to give generous tips whenever someone demonstrates superior service.
The Center for the Advancement of Leadership
About three (3) weeks after I got my table serving position, I landed another job at my alma mater, Utah Valley University (Utah Valley State College at the time) where I became an assistant to the Director of The Center for the Advancement of Leadership—also known as "The CAL."
This job was much more up my alley!
The Director of the Leadership Center was Dr. Bruce Jackson, a Ph.D. in a personal leadership and human development field of study.
I already knew Bruce.
My brothers and I had built shelves in his garage and basement a few years earlier. I admired his extensive and decorated education, dynamic personality, and professional interests. He was an unusually driven, energetic, and visionary human being.
The moment I heard what Bruce was doing with The CAL, I knew I wanted to work for him. Donning my best suit, I proactively solicited an opportunity to meet with Dr. Jackson in his office on campus.
After querying and then listening to learn more about his work and vision at The CAL, I confidently proceeded to "sell" him on how I could serve him, make his job easier, and help him to accomplish his goals.
As it turned out, Bruce was already considering hiring an assistant at the time I visited him and my personal visit and sales pitch provided him impetus to accelerate the process. After completing the required job posting and interviewing process, Bruce liked me and another fellow (Ryan Coombs) enough to hire both of us as co-assistants to the Director.
Ryan's and my remuneration at The CAL was meager—$7.72 per hour with a cap of 30 hours per week—hardly what I was worth as a college graduate.
Why did I choose to take the job despite this pathetically paltry pay?
Because I knew the experience would be worth its weight in gold.
And it was!
Working as one of Dr. Jackson's assistants was one of the most positive, productive, valuable, and educational professional experiences, opportunities, and adventures of my life.
Bruce did his preaching mainly through his example.
He was an exceptional boss, mentor, and human being.
I'll never forget one day when Ryan and I were walking briskly (Bruce's pace) down a hallway near UVSC's physical education facilities when Bruce stopped walking and proclaimed: "Fellas, I need to sweat."
He then immediately entered the locker room, changed into workout clothes, hopped onto a treadmill, and then continued to teach and mentor Ryan and me as we passively flanked him on either side of the machine.
That's the kind of guy Bruce was.
My experiences at The Center for the Advancement of Leadership further laid a foundation for my career as a professional writer, speaker, entrepreneur, and thought leader. Aside from the chance to carefully observe a remarkable self-action leader like Bruce in action every day, I also had opportunities to meet several high profile persons, including: Jon Huntsman, Jr. (future Governor of Utah, U.S. Presidential Candidate, and Ambassador to China), Sharlene Wells Hawkes (former Misss America, 1985), Thurl Bailey (former professional basketball player), and William Sederburg (President of UVSC at the time).
Despite these truly wonderful career opportunities, I remained perpetually desperate for cash because my work hours were limited and my wages were so low. Thus, I continued to seek out other ways to get by and make ends meet.
I returned to Jensen Brothers' Shelving—my older brothers' business—where I assisted them in building shelves in people's garages and basements for $10 per hour.
I also got another $10 per hour job hauling rocks and doing yard work for Dr. Jackson and his wife at their beautiful home in an upscale neighborhood. All the while, I continued to dream about what I really wanted to do, where I really wanted to go, and who I wanted to become in the future.
In the meantime, there was nothing else to do but continue to "labor and to wait." (11)
Throughout my life, I have always been willing to labor. It's the waiting part of the equation that has been extra challenging and trying for me.
Over time, I came to appreciate the incredibly important SAL lesson that guides all successful farmers; namely, that patience is as important as the work itself. Working extra long and hard may increase your harvest, but it cannot truncate the time it takes a crop to grow.
That is just the way things are.
The working part was in my hands.
The waiting part is governed by Universal Laws.
While I am always at liberty to respect or flout the laws, I am not free to arbitrarily select the consequences of my decisions.
That is the purview of the LAWS.
Entrepreneurial Return to My Roots
The temporary yard work I did for Bruce and Marta Jackson gave me an idea.
Why not make and distribute fliers advertising my services as an independent yard-working contractor—just as my older brothers and I did with Jensen Brothers' Shelving?
With no good reason not to try, I designed, printed, and then delivered several hundred of these homespun fliers. Bereft of my own yard tools or a truck to haul them in, my marketing slogan was: Your Tools, My Muscles.
Despite distributing these fliers to approximately 400 homes in local neighborhoods, I received only one job. Actually, I got two jobs, but one customer was a family member who needed some yard chores done and no doubt felt sorry for me.
After completing both jobs, I determined the "numbers game" (one job per 400 fliers) was not suggestive of a sustainable business model under my present circumstances. I therefore abandoned my nascent business to pursue other avenues of employment in addition to the jobs I already had.
The Daily Herald
In August 2004, I got a job as a "stringer" (reporter / newswriter) covering high school and some college sports for the Daily Herald, the hometown newspaper of Provo, Utah. It was a fun job because I like sports and I love to write; but, like the other jobs I had been getting, it did not pay well.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed attending sporting events for free with my Press Pass, interviewing athletes and coaches, and receiving bylines with my name next to articles I had written. Working for the Herald was a step up from the weekly Blue Mountain Panorama—my first newswriting job in high school—in terms of circulation, scope, and publication regularity.
I continued in this job until I began working full-time as an entrepreneur building Freedom Focused the following spring (2005).
Sowing the Seeds of SAL Seminars
Earlier that year (2004), I resumed work creating my personal leadership seminars, which I had first begun developing in late November 2002 and then continued working on in Georgia in 2003.
I found this work to be incredibly engaging, exciting, and satisfying. Whenever I spent time developing seminar material or designing the accompanying PowerPoint slides, I would become completely absorbed in the effort. Such envelopment would propel me into powerfully energizing FLOW states (12), which made the work feel effortless and caused the time to seemingly fly by.
I perceived it to be the kind of work I was born to do.
It was positively intoxicating!
More than 20 years later, as I sit at my office desk typing these very words, I continue to enter these same FLOW states (13) on a regular basis whenever I am fully engaged in writing, speaking, teaching, organizing, or leading on issues I am passionate about.
The opportunity to pursue work activities I love so much is one of the greatest gifts of my life!
And it will be one of the greatest gifts of YOUR life as well.
Despite the immense joy, pleasure, and satisfaction I derived from such work, the lack of financial remuneration for my efforts remained a pressing and perpetual problem. Nevertheless, I persisted, and by the end of the year I had taught 13 pro bono personal leadership seminars to teenage audiences at five (5) different locations in Utah.
The feedback from student seminar attendees was excellent and it confirmed that my youthful audiences found my message of personal leadership to be interesting on its face and compellingly valuable to their educations and lives.
But I was still not making any money for my efforts.
Network Marketing and Direct Sales
Despite my failure as a Cutco Cutlery salesman one summer during high school, a single day in phone service sales in Atlanta, Georgia (before quitting), my dislike of retail sales with FranklinCovey, my aversion to door-to-door canvassing on my church mission, my detestation of school and scouting sales' projects as a kid and teenager, and my lifelong disdain for sales of all kinds—I somehow still possessed the temerity, naïvete, and jejune enthusiasm to pursue a direct sales opportunity around this same period of time (2004-05) when I became involved with a network marketing company.
The name of the company was: Pre-Paid Legal (now LegalShield). They provided legal services on-demand for a low, monthly subscription.
You would think I would have learned my lesson about myself and sales by now, but I remained stubbornly and masochistically convinced that I must "pay my dues" by willingly doing difficult and unpleasant things in order to realize my dreams and earn lasting success.
In theory, it was a noble paradigm and intention rooted in SAL positivity and natural law. After all, we all have to do a measure of work in life that we do not enjoy, and paying one's dues is a real phenomenon that cannot merely be whimsically wished away.
In practice, however, it was yet another disastrous verse to the same self-flagellating song I had been singing throughout my entire life to date.
Predictably, I failed again in yet another misguided attempt to succeed at doing something for which I was poorly suited and deeply disliked. No matter how many times I tried sales, I never gained any lasting love for or traction in the pursuit.
Despite all the time and effort I invested in my Pre-Paid Legal business over the course of the eight (8) months I worked it part-time, I only earned about $500 dollars—a drastically disproportionate ratio of effort and time to remuneration.
Like every other sales position I had ever pursued, it was a disappointing waste of time and money.
Fortunately—like so many other areas of work I was pursuing at this time in my life—this particular opportunity was filled with collateral benefits in terms of its practical educational value in terms of business building and entrepreneurialism. I also learned a lot about myself, the world around me, and the principles of personal and organizational success.
In other words, it was helping prepare me to go full-time with Freedom Focused.
This experience reinforced my strong belief and conviction that the financial remuneration of a job or career is not always commensurate with its educational, practical, or miscellaneous value, and at this period of my life and career, I was very willing to prioritize my education and experience above petty cash, which was all I was earning from my efforts.
On the one hand, my adventures as a Pre-Paid Legal associate was yet another terrible financial decision and investment. On the other hand, it proved to be another marvelous stepping stone to getting where I most wanted to be in the end.
In the long-run, that education and those experiences would pay off many times over in my life and career down the road.
Seminar Seedlings Begin to Sprout
By mid-late spring 2005, I had quit working for The CAL, the Daily Herald, and Pre-Paid Legal and decided to dedicate myself completely to building Freedom Focused by redoubling my efforts to succeed as an entrepreneurial public speaker on personal leadership to high school and college-aged students.
Through information retrieved from a database at the Leadership Center, I had been able to contact nearly every high school in the State of Utah and offer my personal leadership training seminar on a pro bono basis. I made this offer as a means of ginning up as much "practice training time" as possible in order to bolster my resume and credibility as a paid public speaker.
This FREE offering generated a positive response from many schools, and I was able to schedule 38 seminar dates at 22 different schools or other locations all over the State of Utah during the first half of 2005.
I absolutely loved traveling around the State delivering these personal leadership seminars. As a public speaker and trainer, I was able to consistently access the FLOW states (14) I enjoyed when I was writing or developing seminar content.
It was wonderful!
Even more encouraging was the positive feedback I was getting from students who attended my seminars, as the following examples (15) illustrate.
- "Jordan is a very good speaker. His seminar was lively, and actually kept me awake."
- "I enjoyed listening to Jordan; he has given me a lot to think about."
- "Jordan spoke well; he knows how to talk to teens."
While these glowing comments were always nice to hear, what really grabbed my attention were the goals students were setting after attending one of my seminars.
- "I am going to study at least 30 minutes five times a week."
- "I will not skip chemistry."
- "I am going to break up with my boyfriend."
- "I am going to write a personal constitution and organize my priorities in the order of importance."
- "I will exercise regularly instead of throwing up."
In addition to collecting feedback and goals from students who attended my seminars, I also began acquiring endorsement quotes from credible professionals and VIP's who knew me and/or accepted an invitation to review my work or attend one of my seminars. Between all the platform practice I was getting, and all the positive feedback I was receiving, I felt confident I was moving in the right direction to becoming a paid, professional public speaker, seminar facilitator, author, and personal leadership expert.
It was an exhilarating and thrilling journey!
Second Move to Georgia... aka
Risking it All on One Turn of Pitch-and-Toss
All the positive feedback, student goal setting, and accumulating endorsements from credible sources reinforced my confidence and bolstered my credibility. It also encouraged me personally and strengthened the ever-burning conviction inside of me that my personal leadership message needed to be shared on a large scale.
With these ideas and visions in tow, I felt myself quickly outgrowing my position at the Leadership Center and deeply desired to go "all-in" and attempt to build a viable business model out of my services.
Nevertheless, my perpetual penury persisted.
My combined income from all of my part-time jobs was barely enough to just scrape by.
And I had quit all of my jobs!
..................................................
AUTHOR'S WARNING to all would-be entrepreneur's: Do NOT quit your day job until your part-time entrepreneurial venture is making enough money to consistently replace your full-time income.
In other words, never quit your day job unless your side gig is making enough money to replace your primary source of income for a period of 3-6 consecutive months (or more).
I recognize that many may lack patience and choose to disregard this advice. How do I know this? Because I lacked patience and disregarded similar advice myself! However, I paid a painful price for my decisions in the matter, as the rest of this narrative will poignantly relate.
Just don't ever say I didn't warn YOU!
..................................................
Possessing an inordinate amount of belief in myself and my dream—and an over-zealous lack of patience—I set forth to do what many a novice entrepreneur has done before me: I began to furiously seek out financial backers among my immediate and extended family members.
Simply put, I was ready to conquer the world, needed money to do so, and knew that banks wouldn't touch someone like me with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole. So, I turned to those I knew would be more open to my proposals.
Some family members turned down my requests, but for the most part my solicitations bore fruit and I was able to secure personal loans of approximately $45,000 to get started.
Unfortunately, frugality and money management have never been strong suits of mine. If I had a buck for every check I've ever bounced, I would have enough money to take myself out to dinner!
Nevertheless, I dove in head first in an "all-chips-in" gamble on my fledgling enterprise.
As spring turned into summer, I was in full swing building my new business. In the process, I accomplished the following initial objectives:
- Named and legally incorporated my company as an LLC.
- Had a professional business website developed.
- Wrote, directed, and hired the production of a 15-minute professional marketing DVD.
- Wrote and hired the production of 5,000 marketing brochures, marketing letters, envelopes, and business cards.
- Mailed nearly all 5,000 brochures to high school principals in all 50 U.S. States.
- Began writing a full-length book—the FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook
In addition to these foundational endeavors, I also took several extended road trips during 2005 to visit high schools and pitch principals and other administrators on my personal leadership seminars. In total, I visited approximately 30 different high schools in the following States:
- Utah
- Arizona (Phoenix)
- Texas (San Antonio & Houston)
- Georgia (Atlanta area)
- Indiana (Bloomington)
- Illinois (Chicago area)
- Alabama
While this flurry of activity was adventurous, engaging, exciting, invigorating, and fun, it bore little financial fruit.
In hindsight—which is proverbially 20/20—this fact is unsurprising; but at the time, I simply did not know what to expect. I was treading through uncharted entrepreneurial waters fueled on faith, hope, good intentions, and borrowed money—but very little experience or willingness to seek out expert advice and pace myself.
I was determined to do it my way and according to my schedule; and I would eventually fail, eat crow, and suffer acutely for an extended period of time because of my determination to follow this course.
It was a huge roll of the proverbial "dice" to say the very least.
And in the short-run, I would lose my gamble.
By the end of the year, and with the kind assistance of a few willing family members and friends, I had mailed out 4,800 marketing letters and brochures and finished the first draft of my book. To my credit, I did work very hard on my new business and was initially very optimistic of its potential success.
Unfortunately, out of the nearly 5,000 mailers I sent all over the United States, which cost thousands of dollars to print and months to prepare and send out, I only got four-or-five calls back from high school administrators; and out of those 4-5 calls, I booked only two (2) paid seminars—one in Colorado and one in California.
This put my success ratio at 0.04%.
If I had been blessed with more capital and could have printed 100,000 or a million mailers, I might have been able to generate enough momentum to build a successful seminar and speaking business model. But things being what they were, I was already starting to run out of money—and further requests for additional backing were unfruitful.
I was exciting to land my first PAID gigs in Colorado and California; but, this initial excitement was muted by the realization that my limited marketing strategy had failed to launch my business into profitability.
Realizing the local market for my services would be small if I stayed in Utah, and feeling another metaphysical tug to the South as before, I decided to move back to Atlanta, where I would again seek my fortunes—this time as an entrepreneur.
Late in December 2005, while recovering from a broken collarbone sustained in a mountain biking accident, I packed my car with all of my essential earthly possessions and remaining marketing materials.
It was winter in Utah, and the weather had turned snowy and cold. My little, light gray, 2003 Honda Civic LX sedan was stuffed full with an array of personal belongings and professional paraphernalia. In my mind's eye, I can still vividly see a couple of loose seminar brochures sliding off my pile of stuff and down onto the cold, snowy, black asphalt.
Chagrined, and a little embarrassed by the pathetic sight before me—but still believing in myself and determined to succeed—I stooped down, picked up the brochures and tossed them back atop the disordered and billowing heap of hastily packed luggage and supplies then quickly slammed the door shut before they could slide down onto the ground again.
It was in this state that I began my cross-country journey east the day after Christmas 2005—alone—and teetering precariously off of a precipice of impending insolvency.
It was a long, but pleasant, three-day drive back to Atlanta—as I have always enjoyed road-tripping. As I entered the city after dark on the third day, I stopped to eat supper at a Waffle House off the I-20 freeway east of Douglasville.
I was officially back in the South facing a "do-or-die" scenario as an upstart entrepreneur. In my journal for Wednesday, December 28, 2005, I recorded the following:
"It feels really good to be here [in Atlanta]. I feel as though I am home, strange as that may seem to people in my family or other folks. I feel very good and [am] at peace about my decision to move back here."
Looking back, I find it extraordinary that I felt this way, given my truly precarious financial situation at the time. Indeed, as I sit here in my comfortable office in my beautiful home enjoying my wonderful family and relatively peaceful and easy life in 2025, I shudder inside every time I relive these painful moments of my past.
But, they were my choices, and I had to live with the consequences of them and find my own way up and out.
While I had some sense then of the ponderously difficult journey that lay before me, only the passage of time would unveil the full crucible I would have to pass through before making it to my wedding day safely, sanely, and solvent (sort-of); and it would take another four (4) years after that for Lina and me to pay off all the debts we incurred from building Freedom Focused and attending Georgia Tech.
With the exception of one, final $3,000 loan from my dear mother—Freedom Focused's biggest financial backer by far—I had used up all the money I had raised from family members to build my business.
My poor money sense, shoddy accounting practices, and fairytale faith led to my foolishly signing an apartment contract I could not afford. At the time, I remained convinced that Serendipity had my back and my business could still take off. Thus, I was ready and willing to roll the dice one last time. I felt certain that come what may, my actions would eventually be vindicated as part of a great success story.
While there is a measure of truth in this paradigm, the manner in which I pursued it and the extent of my risk-taking remains reckless, feckless, foolish, and naïve—something I would never, not in a million years ever do again. Nevertheless, it was one of those life situations where I simply had to learn the hard way—through the gauntlet of real world experience.
In the end, Serendipity would indeed "have my back," but not before allowing me to learn some very painful life lessons. Serendipity does ultimately "have your back" also as a self-action leader—as long as you remain committed to giving it your all, learning from your mistakes, and making necessary course corrections and adjustments along the way.
Serendipity does not take away the natural consequences of your own shortsighted and unwise decisions. Nor will it always bring you what you think you deserve when you think it should arrive.
Nonetheless, come what may, I remained determined to pursue my leap of faith to the end, whether that end was bitter or sweet. Without any doubt, I was: "Risking it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss." (15)
With the aid of 20 years of hindsight, my gamble ultimately paid off handsomely—in the long-run.
There is no question about that.
However, if I had to do it over again, I would never repeat the same steps I took the first time around—the consequences were far too painful.
With that said, I will also say that I do not regret taking these steps. After all, it's hard to see how I would have met Lina—my best friend and the love of my life—had I been unwilling to go all-in on my gamble, which included returning to Atlanta for a second time, in spite of the huge financial risks of doing so.
Thus, while this story's end has ultimately turned out to be very sweet indeed, I am not going to sugarcoat the bitterness of the pills I had to swallow and digest due to the difficulty of the circumstances in which I mired myself along the way.
My failures and mistakes are as important to my SAL story as are its happier, more successful elements.
And so it will be with YOU.
Failure and Success are two different sides of the same coin.
Precariously ensconced in my new apartment in Woodstock, Georgia (a northern suburb of Atlanta), I had no furniture save a worktable and folding chair. I started off sleeping on a cheap air mattress I purchased at Wal-Mart, but it soon developed a hole, so I ended up sleeping on the floor for the first few months until I was able to salvage a surprisingly clean, soft, and relatively new queen-sized mattress someone had taken out and leaned up against my apartment building's dumpster corral.
Serendipity often works in small and simple, yet very sweet and significant ways!
One's person's trash truly is another person's treasure...
And you can bet I did not let that treasure go to waste! In fact, it was the mattress I slept on for the next two-and-a-half years, until I got married.
Alone in my apartment, I went to work and finished my book: I Am Sovereign: The Power of Personal Leadership—a 303-page book that would serve as the FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook—and submitted it to a self-publisher I had arranged to print the first several hundred copies.
I then began writing emails to dozens of literary agencies in an effort to secure an agent who could help me sell my book to a real publishing house.
I concurrently began writing to many famous individuals I did not personally know, including First Lady Laura Bush and Senator Hillary Clinton in conjunction with Governors, Congressional members, two prestigious college football coaches I admired, and even two female movie stars I had "Hollywood Crushes" on at the time.
Of all my business building initiatives, writing these letters to famous folks was perhaps the most salient indicator of the naïve faith and "pie in the sky" hopefulness that marked many of my efforts during that particular period of time. Indeed, it all seems a little silly to me now. But, at the time, I had plenty of time on my hands and was determined to use it in a multi-pronged approach to get my name out there and market my work.
After a while—to the great credit of those persons (or more likely their staff) who bothered to respond back—I began receiving polite rejections. I've included a few of the more memorable ones below.
Rejection Letter from First Lady Laura Bush's Office
Letter from U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton
Letter from Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.
Rejection Letter from The Firm Literary Agency
Letter from Georgia Bulldog's Head Coach, Mark Richt
Letter from Florida Gators Head Coach, Urban Meyer
I more of less expected these rejections—and others like them—and therefore handled them in stride.
An exception to this pattern arrived one day from the office of Dr. Stephen R. Covey: one of my greatest HEROES. I all but worshipped Dr. Covey's work, and by extension, Stephen R. himself. I had been enormously influenced by his writing and thinking and knew the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People model and material frontwards-and-back. I had always seen myself as following in his footsteps and standing on his shoulders to build my own superstructure upon the firm foundation of principle-centered leadership and personal leadership that he and my Uncle Hyrum had laid with their own stellar contributions to the fields of time management, human development, and leadership.
Rejection Letter from Stephen R. Covey's Personal Assistant
It was incredibly dejecting and depressing to discover that my book did not even make it past Covey's screening committee. In other words, Covey himself never even saw the book.
Receiving this letter from his personal assistant made me feel as though Stephen Covey himself was scowling down at me through the mail with a stern and steely rebuke as follows: "Jordan, you are neighter ready nor worthy of my commendation and endorsement."
In hindsight, I completely get it.
The FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook was the self-published work of an amateur, plain and simple. The truth was that I was not yet ready nor worthy of Covey's attention, time, or endorsement. Nor would I ever get it during his lifetime (1932-2012).
But...
I never stopped working for and earning it, and somethings tells me he'd sign off on the SEVENTH Edition of the SAL Textbook.
At the time, it was an agonizingly painful and embarrassing truth to recognize, acknowledge, and stomach the gap that existed between where I was and where I wanted to go. In the heat of the moment, it is almost impossible to fully align oneself with a reality so painful—even though the only way to truly transcend such a moment is to so orient oneself. I admit I was not quite ready to do so at the time.
In the meantime, I refused to be discouraged and forced myself to allow the smart of the situation to motivate me forward and continually persist until I did eventually succeed in a consummate manner.
While most of the literary agencies also sent me polite rejection letters, I did eventually receive an offer—and signed with the willing agent right away.
Success at long last!
Or so I thought at the time.
My new agent seemed legitimate, and from all accounts he and his partner really did make a good-faith effort to pitch my book to major New York publishing houses. They were very kind to me and we spent a lot of time working together. In all they ended up investing 75 hours on my project—all of which was unpaid because agents do not get paid unless they secure a book deal.
To their credit, they continued to communicate with and otherwise work with me for many months after our initial round of rejections. His partner even came up with the title for the SECOND Edition of the SAL Textbook: Leaders for Life: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Personal Leadership.
Eventually, however, this agent understandably lost patience with the lack of success surrounding my book and dropped me.
As the days and weeks passed, I predictably began to run extremely low on money—a common refrain in what had become the soap opera of my doomed entrepreneurial saga. Between family loans and credit card debt, I had dug myself into a "Red" hole that now measured a staggering $70,000 dollars.
On the flip side, I earned a total income of less than $3,000 dollars during the entire year of 2005. It is safe to say I was nearing rock bottom.
Indeed, the whole affair had turned into a ponderous mess that would remain a millstone around my neck (and later Lina's and my neck) for the next seven (7) years, until, in 2012 we finally remitted our last debt payment.
Meanwhile, it was only a matter of weeks before I was completely broke.
Desperately scrambling to regain solvency, I applied for a job at the retail giant, Target.
They never called me back.
I searched for employment opportunities online.
Nothing came of my searches.
Next, I designed fliers advertising my services as an English and history tutor and hand-delivered over a thousand (1,000) of them in upscale neighborhoods and schools and colleges in suburban Atlanta.
I'll never forget one evening when I was out delivering fliers and got lost. Between the fliers I ran that night and my frantic search for my car, I ended up walking and running some 30 miles before I finally discovered where I had parked my vehicle.
Nothing came of this effort, either, or at least not immediately when I so desperately needed the money. (17)
Homemade Flier Advertising My Services as a Tutor
With no job and no additional seminars scheduled, I began to inwardly panic as threats of eviction and car repossession began to mount.
I was also beginning to run out of food.
Lessons Learned and Serendipitous Grace
In the midst of an increasingly desperate situation, I was far too embarrassed and prideful to crawl back to my family in Utah or ask anyone in my immediate family for financial assistance ever again.
While I had not entirely given up hope yet, I was also increasingly self-aware of the fact that my "faith" was looking more like foolishness every day that passed. I felt ashamed and humiliated by my lack of results and the situation I had gotten myself into.
In a last-ditch effort of absolute desperation, I petitioned my local ecclesiastical leader for temporary assistance with food and rent. I did not end up needing much help—just a few months' rent, a connection with a roommate who could subsidize my rent payment moving forward, and an order or two of food from the Bishop's Storehouse.
Resorting to this worst-case scenario was mortifying; but, I will forever be grateful to God and my Church for assisting me in this, my hour of great personal need.
I had given much by way of service to my Church as a full-time missionary, lifelong full tithe payer, and active member throughout my life, and it was most gratifying and reassuring to know that they had my back for a few necessities when my back was up against the wall.
These modest, but incredibly important offerings helped me make it through the messiest and most frustrating and agonizing period of my entire life. It also powerfully reinforced the fact and reality that even my best efforts as a self-action leader are sometimes insufficient to carry the day. Indeed, there are times and seasons in all of our lives when each of us need a helping hand—financially or otherwise—due to either circumstances beyond our control and/or consequences of our own unwise decisions.
I was deeply humbled by the fact that I had to learn this lesson through actual experience.
Reflecting back on this inexplicably painful period of my life, and knowing what I know now, I would never ever repeat these same steps again. Even today—two decades after the fact—it is horrifying for me to go back and mentally relive this period of time. Even researching and recounting this dark period of my life fills me with an wretched and sickening feeling—a ghastly twisting and turning pit in my heart, mind, and stomach.
Reviewing old letters wherein I requested (zealously implored) money from immediate and extended family members is particularly excruciating to me now. At the time, I was simply doing what I felt I had to do, which was everything in my power to succeed.
"I must not give up trying," I would continually affirm to myself.
But, in reality, I was operating off of flawed assumptions and distorted paradigms that were driven as much by delusions and OCD as they were by practical, rational, and reasonable entrepreneurship and faith initiatives.
Nevertheless, as unwise and impractical as some of my decisions clearly were—and as painful as the consequences were that accompanied my choices—there remained a significant silver lining to these efforts.
In the process of this pathway, I needed to prove to myself that I had the audacity, courage, and indomitable willingness to take an unbounded leap of FAITH for something I really believed in and hold nothing back in the process—even at the peril of personal embarrassment and debt, temporary failure, and immense anxiety and stress.
Without any doubt, I did prove that to myself, and—like my full-time 2-year missionary service—this accomplishment has served as a foundation and bulwark of my confidence, identity, and self-worth ever since.
In the long-run, it was okay that I failed to launch Freedom Focused on my first try.
Nobody accomplishes great things on their first go-round.
Though I unquestionably paid a heavy price because of my failures and debt of 2005-06, I also became something bigger and stronger through the refining heat of this entrepreneurial crucible. More importantly, I demonstrated the wisdom and willingness to shift my strategy and tactics to conform more fully to realities on the ground once it became clear that I was headed in the wrong direction. Most importantly, I unwittingly positioned myself in precisely the right place to receive one of the greatest gifts Serendipity would ever bestow upon me; namely, meeting, courting, and marrying Lina.
I experienced strong metaphysical tugs and pulls directing me to Atlanta, Georgia in both 2003 and 2005.
I'm really glad I heeded them.
For this reason alone, I would not change the past—even if I had the power to do so.
I learned a lot about myself—both negative and positive—during this trying period; and, in the aggregate, this season of my life will forever serve as an anchor to my self-confidence, personal resolve, strength of will, and determination of spirit.
It was an unquestionably flawed journey
But, it was my journey; and it was worth taking—negative consequences and pain notwithstanding.
I learned from it all and avoided making the same mistakes in the future.
And it has undoubtedly served as a vital building block in making me who I am today.
Rock Botton and Substitute Teaching
In the midst of my panic and penury, I continued to work diligently on building Freedom Focused while harboring largely unrealistic hopes that my business would take off and rescue me from drowning in debt.
I finished the FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook: I Am Sovereign: The Power of Personal Leadership—a 300-plus page book on personal leadership aimed at a teenage and young adult audience.
On April 6, 2006, I received the first 565 copies packaged in 12 cardboard boxes at my apartment in Woodstock, Georgia. My new roommate—who was helping me with my rent payments—helped me carry all the boxes of books up to our third-floor apartment.
The FIRST Edition of the SAL Textbook
Self-Published in 2006
I feverishly got to work sending out copies of my newly published book to school administrators and others, hoping to sell my message, draw attention to the work, and obtain additional paid seminars. In all, I mailed out nearly a hundred (100) marketing copies of my book and accompanying marketing DVD, but received very few interested "bites" in return. Recognizing my "ship" wasn't likely to come in any time soon, I continued seeking out employment opportunities to acquire some desperately needed income.
I finally found success in my application to become a substitute teacher in Cobb County School District of suburban Atlanta. I began substitute teaching in February 2006 and continued picking up substitute positions at schools throughout the district for the remainder of the school year.
Between my roommate, limited and temporary assistance from my Church, an extremely modest income as a substitute teacher, and a little unsolicited help from my dear father back in Utah, and a windfall seminar gig and book sales contract from a high school in Lexington, Virginia, I was able to make ends meet until the end of June 2006.
By this time, however, I had begun to receive letters and calls initiating the process for both apartment eviction and car repossession.
Having foolishly maxed out every credit card I owned—five different cards for a total of $13,000—in an "all-chips-in" gamble on my fledgling business, I began to be hounded by a slew of creditors. I had also gotten braces on my teeth 18 months earlier and had to pay for a necessary, but expensive, oral surgery (gum graft) before moving back to Georgia.
My payments for these medical and orthodontic procedures were perpetually late.
The stress and strain of my financial duress permeated every area of my life. A journal entry from this period of time captures the essence of the pressure I felt:
Sunday, March 26, 2006Tonight I went to a lavish feast at the M——'s house in Alpharetta as part of a church activity. They live in a palatial residence in a posh neighborhood and it was good to fill my gut to the gills. I have this fascinating, almost nagging feeling inside that nudges me to stuff myself as much as possible when I'm presented with free food—as if the more I shovel in, the longer I will be able to go without eating again—just in case I don't have anything to eat in a few days.
To be clear, I have never been legitimately food insecure or gone without basic sustenance. I do not share this journal entry to hyperbolize the reality of my situation But, the FEAR of becoming food insecure was enough to engender the psychological and emotive state described above.
Pressing On, Some Modest Successes,
and my Dear Dad and Grandma
Around this same time, I badly sprained my ankle playing basketball and was on crutches for a couple of weeks. For my entire life leading up to November 2005, I had never broken a bone or experienced a serious injury. Then, in the course of four (4) months' time, I broke my collarbone and badly sprained my ankle.
As the old saying goes: When it rains, it pours!
Through any and all such adversity, I continued to diligently build my business.
For example, I:
- Sought out and obtained endorsement quotes for my book and seminars.
- Wrote and published online newsletters.
- Signed up educators for my online newsletter—over 30,000 of them in all—a project requiring a mammoth investment of time over the course of many months.
- Mailed out scores of book copies to targeted individuals for review.
- Developed email marketing materials.
- Prepared a book proposal under the direction of my literary agent.
Though I had hit rock bottom, I was still a long way from giving up. I was also starting to receive feedback on my newly published book, which, like my seminar feedback, was very positive and encouraging.
In March 2006, I was blessed with a paid speaking gig at Monticello High School in my hometown in Utah. Several years previously, I had attended MHS from 8th through the 11th grade (1993-1997). Now I was back to address the entire student body in a 30-minute personal leadership-oriented motivational speech in the school auditorium.
I was well received.
I also taught a personal leadership seminar to the student council leaders.
I had offered my former school a 75% discount to book me, so my wages ($200) for the day were meager—not enough to recoup the costs of airfare from Georgia to Utah and back—but, every little bit helped!
Speaking of every little bit helping: before I left town, my dear father pulled me aside and handed me a sealed envelope and instructed me to wait until I was on the road to open it. After boarding a shuttle van back to Salt Lake City, I opened up the envelope and found—to my great thanks and relief—$200 cash enclosed along with a priceless personal letter to me.
Dad's sweet, tender, and glowing letter buoyed my spirits and his generous and timely cash gift helped me get back to Georgia safely and eased some of my clear and present financial angst.
In those early days, I understandably had more critics and judges than cheerleaders. However, my mother and father—to their great credit and despite having divorced in 2004—remained remarkably united as my two greatest cheerleaders throughout these difficult years.
My sweet and precious mother was the biggest financial backer (by far) of Freedom Focused in its early days (Lina and I eventually paid her back in full), and my beloved DAD wrote the following to me in his letter dated March 13, 2006, following my 30-minute motivational speech at Monticello High School.
Dear Jordan,Watching your presentation in that auditorium yesterday morning was one of the biggest thrills of my life. I sincerely mean that. YOU WERE SENSATIONAL! I had to leave shortly after the Gandhi segment in order to get to school on time, but I saw enough! Man, the passion, the polish, and the professionalism all combined to make little tears run down your daddy's cheeks and huge chills down his back. Might as well have been Zig Ziglar up there.I can see you have picked up some fine points from some of the excellent Baptist Preachers in the South. I was sitting in the back, and I can tell you, you had that group in the palm of your hand, and anyone who can do that with teenagers can do anything in this world. Teenagers are the toughest audience there is.Thanks for being such an example for me. I admire so many of the great qualities you possess. I cannot figure out how I ever got lucky enough to be your Dad. I can promise you that if you ever have a child perform on the level you performed today, especially one who has had to deal with and overcome what you have, it will be one of the crowning experiences of your life. You are going to make a huge difference in the lives of, well, only time will tell.Please let me know if you get in a bind. I would love to own stock in Jordan R. Jensen INC. I am not very flush with cash right now, but I hope this little amount of money will help in the tough transition. I truly believe the day is not far off, when this will just be pocket change to you.I love you so much.Your old "papa"Dad
The $200 dollars cash Dad included in this precious letter helped me make it back to Atlanta and avoid sinking completely into insolvency. Later that year, Dad also helped me with a few car payments, without which my car would have been repossessed.
Lastly,, and perhaps most importantly, his was a voice of reason and rebuke later in 2006 that helped me realize I must stop asking people for money and take full responsibility for my clear and present financial situation.
This chastisement from my father stung terribly and filled my mind, heart, soul, and stomach with a horrifying sense of embarrassment and shame. But, this was a good thing and proved very helpful in getting me to shift my focus and reorient my strategy moving forward.
I had been so obsessively determined to "make my business work" at any honest cost that I needed some voices from the outside that I deeply respected to indicate when it was time to alter my focus and redirect my financial strategy to align more fully with principles of provident living and self-reliance. My father, Uncle Hyrum, and Aunt Gail's voices were key catalysts that triggered this much needed mental change and short-term strategic shift.
My father had his shortcomings and weaknesses, as we all do.
Indeed, Dad was not perfect.
Yet, somehow, he often managed to be perfect for me.
I mean this with all my heart, and credit Serendipity for the privilege of being his son.
In addition to being one of the key examples, mentors, and teachers that fueled my interests in communication, current events, history, language, literature, politics, and vocabulary, Dad was by far one of the greatest cheerleaders of my life and work—and it has always mean a lot to me.
One of the things that has impressed me the most about Dad is that I never ever sensed the slightest hint of jealousy on his part. His desires and hopes for my successes were authentic, sincere, and untainted by any wish to outshine me. Indeed, it seems clear to me that Dad's greatest wish was always for me to outshine him. And between SAL and Serendipity, I have unquestionably lived a very lavish version of the American Dream.
That kind of humility and penitence is rare among human beings; but, my papa possessed both virtues.
Dad's first name is REX, which, in Latin, means "King."
Of his five (5) sons, I was the youngest and received the distinct honor of receiving his name (REX) as my middle name. I am proud to be the son of a KING—who all throughout my life has treated me and otherwise made me feel like a Prince.
I also recognize that my given name, Jordan, signifies FREEDOM by virtue of the ancient Israelites' need to pass over the River Jordan to obtain their freedom in the Promised Land.
I take the subject of personal, professional, and existential freedom very seriously—as this book attests. I further recognize and embrace the duty and responsibility I have to teach, exemplify, and champion personal responsibility, Self-Action Leadership, Serendipity, and freedom everywhere I go and to everyone whom I meet or associate with in my life and career right up through to my very last breath in this world.
It is my duty.
It is my privilege.
It is my honor and JOY.
Dad loved me—his son—as only a father could, and he always thrilled at my own successes as much—if not more so—than I myself did. Moreoever, he never pushed or prodded me to do anything because he wanted me to do it. He had enormous respect for my own liberty and freedom and how I chose to use them. His parenting style was simply to set an example of hard work, productivity, and excellence in his own life and career and then cheer me on in whatever I decided to pursue.
And oh! How he thrilled at my accomplishments!
I LOVE you, Dad.
Thank YOU for being the perfect father for me and my unique life and unorthodox career.
And now, back to business...
While my income as a substitute teacher was insufficient to cover all my expenses, it was certainly better than nothing. Unfortunately, the school year was ending soon, which meant there would be no more subbing jobs until the next school year began approximately 10 weeks later.
I would have to find another source of income, and soon.
Thankfully, two (2) very bright rays of sunshine shone my way in 2006 in the form of my first two seminar gigs plus book sales in the States of Virginia and Indiana.
The Virginia gig came courtesy of Principal Andy Bryan at Rockbridge County High School in Lexington, who paid for me to come and train his student leaders in April 2006. He also purchased 220 copies of my new and freshly published book. This single booking was worth over $4,000 dollars in income and did wonders for my spirits and morale. Moreover, it was a splendid and joyful adventure to drive up to Virginia for the weekend event.
Four (4) months later, I booked a similar gig at Heritage Hills High School in Lincoln City, Indiana, where Principal Dan Scherry purchased six (6) one hour seminars and 190 copies of my book.
Like the trip to Virginia, my visit to Indiana was a memorable and magnificent adventure, in part because it was located smack dab in the middle of "Abraham Lincoln country," where the 16th President of the United States lived from ages 7-21 (1816-1830). For someone who has spent a lot of time reading, studying, and reflecting on Lincoln's life and legacy, it was very special for me to walk the hallowed property where "Honest Abe" once walked, chopped wood, split rails, build fences, told stories, and read books.
Between Principals Bryan and Scherry, I managed to sell 410 of my original shipment of 565 books. It was always very important to me to use up whatever product or marketing supplies I paid to produce. If I was going to fail, I was going to "go down swinging" and not leave any proverbial "gas in the tank." While my money sense was not always sterling, I was good at productively putting to use whatever product and supplies I paid to procure. Whether it was brochures, marketing DVDs, or published books, in the end, I always used up the vast majority of whatever materials I purchased—a point in which I take pride.
Sadly, en route to Lincoln City, Indiana for my training gig there, I received news that my beloved paternal grandmother—LaVerda Barton Jensen—Dad's mom, had passed away at the age of 87.
It was not a convenient time to sink $700 into a last-minute plane ticket back to Utah (I had no knowledge of bereavement offers at the time), but I would not have missed my precious grandmother's funeral for anything.
I had dearly loved her and was dearly beloved by her in return.
I had lost more than just a grandma.
I had lost a dear friend.
We had spent countless hours together over the years and she had been so good and kind and generous to me in so many different ways over the years. When I was a little boy, she often cut my hair. Throughout my life she gave the best birthday and Christmas presents—which almost always included either cash or a check—and on countless occasions fed me some of the most delicious home cooking of my life.
During the years I lived in southeastern Utah, her home was just a mile away. During the time we had spent in Mesa, Arizona (1986-1993), her and Grandpa Jensen spent two (2) winters being "Snowbirds" in Mesa so they could live closer to us. I'll never forget the trips to Wendy's for dinner and a "Frosty," compliments of Grandma and Grandpa Jensen.
Grandma not only made me a $3,500 loan to help start Freedom Focused, but she also changed its status from a "loan" to a "gift," thus easing some of my financial stress early on. I would miss our long chats together in her snug and cozy home in Monticello.
She had been more than just a grandmother to me.
She had been like a second mother.
I will cherish our relationship for eternity.
Despite the financial strain of returning for the funeral, it was wonderful to travel to my hometown and be with family and honor her memory and legacy.
In my journal that day I recorded the following:
Thurs. Aug. 31, 2006The funeral was amazing. One of the choice experiences of my life. Very spiritual and very emotional. My emotion was not from being sad though. It was from feeling the joy and the Spirit as I contemplate my blessed association with my precious Grandmother Jensen. ... A memorably men's quartet of Each Life that Touches Ours For Good was sung at her graveside service. Ever after, this song would prove special to me—and serve as a tender reminder of my Grandma Jensen. (18)
I did not know it at the time, but Lina's grandmother—Vada Johnson Hansen—also passed away in August 2006. Little did Lina and I know at the time of our grandmother's funerals that we were only a few weeks away from meeting each other.
But perhaps LaVerda and Vada knew and teamed up to throw their support our way.
I can't prove it.
But I certainly like the idea of that thought.
Losing and Starting Again at My Beginnings
Despite the enormously encouraging business I had managed to gin up in Virginia and Indiana, I still could not stay in front of—or on top of—my bills.
It was simply too many bills and too few book sales and seminar bookings.
But, there was still hope for a book deal.
Having recently finished my book proposal, my literary agents began pitching my book to major New York Publishing Houses. It seemed that my big breakthrough hinged on securing a book deal. I earnestly hoped and desperately prayed that something significant would materialize, but alas, it never did.
Every Publishing House that reviewed my manuscript proposal rejected it.
It was a complete bust!
The deeper I got into the year 12006, the clearer it became that I had "risk[ed] it all on one turn of pitch and toss" (19)—and lost.
Now it was up to me to "start again at [my] beginnings, and never breathe a word about [my] loss" (20)—except, of course, for educational and inspirational purposes, such as this present narrative.
By this point in time, the full weight of reality had crashed in all around me. It was time to wake up from my dreams of a fantastical rise and storybook ascent into literary fame and financial success through a mighty cultural contribution. The harshness of real life had crushed my dreams of quickly becoming a Stephen Covey or Tony Robbins figure to a teenage and young adult population.
Meanwhile, I was confronted with only one legitimate option. I had to begin again. I had to stoop down, pick up the pieces of my broken life and career and start anew. To further paraphrase Kipling, having watched the things I gave my life to broken, it was time to stoop and build 'em up again with worn-out tools. (21)
And in the words of the Poet, Frank L. Stanton, I had to Keep a-Goin.
Keep a-Goin'
If you strike a thorn or rose,
Keep a-goin!
If it hails or if it snows,
Keep a-goin!
'Taint no use to sit an' whine
When the fish ain't on your line;
Bait your hood an' keep a-tryin;—
Keep a-goin!
When the weather kills your crop,
Keep a-goin!
Though 'tis work to reach the top,
Keep a-goin!
S'pose you're out o' ev'ry dime,
Gittin' broke ain't any crime;
Tell the world you're freelin' prime—
Keep a-goin!
When it looks like all is up,
Keep a-goin!
Drain the sweetness from the cup,
Keep a-goin!
See the wild birds on the wing,
Hear the bells that sweetly ring,
When you feel like singin', sing—
Keep a-goin! (22)
—Frank L. Stanton
My Saving Grace
A second eviction notice signaled I was losing my battle with the clock and my creditors.
Wholly unable to make another month's rent payment, I turned to the last source of help I still dared turn to: my dear cousin Ida Joy Anderson and her then husband, Steve—the same cousins I had lived with for sic months back in 2003-04, the first time I had pilgrimed to Atlanta.
Ida had already offered me a place to stay when she heard I was moving back to Georgia in late 2005, but, deeply desiring to establish habitation autonomy and otherwise "make it on my own," I had gratefully declined her offer the second time around.
I no longer had the luxury of choice in the matter.
If I wanted to stay in Georgia and avoid a disgraced return to my family in Utah, I felt as though I had only two viable options left. I could move back in with my cousins, or live in my car.
Ida and Steve generously offered me free room and board while I got back on my feet. They also lent me $2,000 so I could pay off my apartment rental bills, keep, my car, and avoid bankruptcy—which I seriously considered at one point.
In addition to a roof over my head and food to eat, they provided me with a summer job tending their two young sons during the day while the two of them were at work. Thus, I worked full-time as a nanny throughout the summer and part-time in the fall (after the boys got out of school each day), while I continued to build Freedom Focused—now on a part-time basis.
Little did I know at the time the ways in which this nannying experience was preparing me to someday be a stay-at-home dad! (more on this subject in a later section in this chapter).
The money I earned from nannying enabled me to make my car payments. It also allowed me to continue making minimum payments on my credit card debt, which I had downsized into one monthly payment through a debt-consolidation company. My non-interest bearing debts to family members would have to wait until I could afford to start paying those off as well.
It was during this time that I met with a bankruptcy lawyer in Atlanta to learn about my options for starting over completely financially. After this meeting, I chose to avoid bankruptcy for three different reasons.
FIRST: The idea of bankruptcy was anathema to my sense of personal integrity and honor. Every penny I had borrowed rightfully belonged to someone else. As such, I felt duty-bound to pay every cent back, including with interest where required.
SECOND: My unwise financial decisions had already badly damaged my credit score, and I did not want to risk incurring additional damage by declaring bankruptcy. Even without going bankrupt, my hamstrung credit score carried the negative consequences of my poor financial decisions for many years thereafter. I am pleased to report that today, my credit score consistently hovers around the 800 point mark. But it took a long time—and a lot of help from Lina—to erase the terrible dings my credit incurred during this disastrous period of my financial journey.
THIRD: From a purely practical standpoint, I did not have enough cash to pay the attorney's fees to formally file for bankruptcy even if I had wanted to.
I was too poor to declare bankruptcy!
How ironic and pathetic is that?
My Long Walk Through the Desert Continues
Due to my book's total failure in the New York publishing house market, I had to rely solely on my self-published version. Thankfully, towards the end of the year, I found a smaller publisher all on my own. He agreed to publish a revised edition of my book, which would become the SECOND Edition of the SAL Textbook and be titled: Leaders for Life: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Personal Leadership.
The credit for this new title goes to the partner of my literary agent.
Encouraged by this new development and opportunity, I diligently revised my entire working manuscript and then turned it over to the publisher. Then, without any adequate explanation, the publisher dishonestly reneged on our signed contract, thus hanging me out to dry.
I was furious!
Legally, I could have sued him for damages and lost time.
However, I am not the suing type and did not have the resources to hire a lawyer even if I had wanted to.
I learned a good lesson from this experience: Never go into business with that guy again.
In September 2006, Lina and I met—signalling the beginning of our friendship and eventual courtship and marriage. This was a wonderful personal development amidst all the pain and stress of my professional failures. On the other hand, it also increased my personal anxiety as the previous chapter so intricately detailed.
New Year and New Beginnings
Beginning in January 2007, I went back to substitute teaching, picking up jobs at every opportunity. Over the course of the four years I served as a substitute teacher, I had the chance to work in over 40 different schools throughout the Cobb County School District. Most of the schools I worked in were middle and high schools. In the aggregate, this was a rich and educational experience for a budding educator like me.
On the professional speaking front, my marketing efforts from the previous year resulted in my booking several additional gigs—some paid and some pro bono—in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and California. Accruing new business was always exciting and encouraging, even if it was too sporadic to make ends meet.
In November 2007, Lina accompanied me to Birmingham, Alabama, where I had landed a 25-minute keynote gig to my largest audience to date in my career: 1,200 students! It was thrilling to speak to a crowd that big on a subject I felt so strongly about and knew could so powerfully influence others in positive ways.
Despite this and other bright spots along the way, I remained "broke as a joke."
During the summer months, I was once again bereft of substitute teaching jobs and desperate to find more work. Through a mutual friend of Lina's and mine at church, I found a part-time job drying cars for a small, privately-owned car washing business. The work began in the dark, predawn hours and continued on into the heat and humidity of Atlanta's sweltering summer days. Armed with nothing but a chamois cloth and my own elbow grease and stickie-ta-tudy, (23) the work was physically taxing and terribly tedious; but, it did provide me with a few extra bucks to pay my most pressing bills.
I also signed up with another temp agency and filled a shift in a packaging plant, similar to the NuSkin temp job I had gotten back in Utah in 2005.
Fortunately, and gratefully, these two temporary positions were both short-lived because I learned about a job posting for a groundskeeper at my Church's Temple in Sandy Springs (Atlanta) right next to the chapel where I attended church on Sundays.
I applied for the job and got it.
It paid $11 dollars per hour and offered a 40-hour work week.
I worked this job throughout the summer and early fall of 2007. It was the first time in over eight (8) years that I actually had a full-time job. For this, I felt profoundly thankful.
On the other hand, I confess it was also a trial to my pride—it being difficult to stomach the fact that I had been a college graduate for four (4) years and was still doing manual labor jobs and making only a little more than minimum wage for my efforts. It was extra frustrating when I considered the fact that I already had several high-paying seminar gigs and book sales under my belt as a professional author and trainer.
I could earn as much in a few hours speaking or training as I could in a few weeks as a full-time day laborer.
I admit that this bothered me.
It agitated my ego and pinpricked my pride.
But, that was actually a good thing in the long-run, and I knew it—even at the time. I therefore did my best to live in the moment and try and enjoy the unfolding adventure of my unorthodox career path so filled with fits and starts.
Full-time groundskeeping was not easy work.
It involved almost exclusively outdoor manual labor in temperatures that would get oppressive in the summertime in Atlanta, Georgia. As it happened, the summer of 2007 was one of the hottest summers on record in "The ATL," with midday and afternoon temperatures rising uncharacteristically above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
These torrid temps conspired with the enervating humidity of the Southeastern U.S. to beat down torturously upon us as we weeded, pruned, groomed, mowed, de-rooted, swept, and removed litter from the Temple grounds.
I particularly remember one morning when I was tasked with digging out the trunk and root system that had once belonged to a large tree on the property. With only a pick-axe, shovel, and my own strength, grit, and endurance, I set to work.
Bulging beads of salty sweat poured down my forehead and face, trickling downward profusely until the rest of my clothes and body were completely soaked. Such incredibly taxing work caused my heart to race, my muscles to ache with fatigue, and my pores to profusely pour out perspiration.
Fortunately, I was no stranger to vigorous and strenuous physical labor, and the many past experiences of my youth empowered me when confronting such an unusually difficult and onerous physical challenge.
When I finally succeeded in extricating that large tree trunk and its roots, I stood back and gazed in awe at my own impressive achievement. It was one of many such experiences in my life where I had the pleasure and satisfaction of standing back and seeing the fruits of my own vigorous labor.
There are few things more rewarding in life than sticking to and then satisfactorily completing a really difficult challenge or tasks. It is enormously fulfilling to stand back, peer down upon such an accomplishment and be able to say: I did that.
So much of self-action leadership is spelled W-O-R-K!
While I wasn't earning much money—what else was new?—I was building character, developing patience, and cultivating gratitude and humility in my life and career, which was worth far more than the few dollars I was earning along the way.
The Temple site was also an exceedingly picturesque and peaceful place to be a groundskeeper. I've often joked that it was the holiest yard work I ever undertook.
But, it really isn't a joke.
And considering how much yard work I've done over the years, is quite the compliment!
Indeed, this job provided me with many quiet moments of soulful solitude and spiritual reflection, which was a huge blessing in my life during a time of great stress in my career and much anxiety in my deepening romantic relationship with Lina.
As challenging as the work was and as stuck as I sometimes felt in my career, I still cherish the time I spent at this special job. I am grateful to God and my Church for the bridge it provided to a more fruitful income in the future.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Around the same time I landed my Temple groundskeeping job (June 2007), I attended an employment meeting at my church. I met a man there who, after learning of my talents, experiences, and career ambitions, asked me if I had ever heard of "Contract Training."
I told him I had not.
He then explained to me that contract training was a way that independent speakers like myself could find work. Intrigued by the concept, I began researching the industry online as soon as I got home that evening.
In my online search, I was able to immediately identify a couple of companies that specialized in contract training. Impressed by what I saw on their web pages, I submitted an application and resumé to both companies.
One of them, SkillPath Seminars, rejected me immediately, citing insufficient experience.
The other one, Fred Pryor Seminars, offered me a chance to audition—first over the phone.
Thanks in part to my inside-out knowledge of Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People model, which I was able to spontaneously demonstrate, my phone audition was successful and I was invited to a live audition at Fred Pryor's headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. I attended this live audition en route to Utah for a family reunion in July 2007.
My live audition was similarly successful and I was invited back to attend their 3-day train-the-trainer event about seven weeks later.
Taking a week off work, I hit the road back to Kansas City in late August 2007.
It was a challenging trip. I had no money for hotel fare and had to sleep in my car at rest stops alongside the Interstate freeways. Once in Kansas City, I was able to make contact with a leader in a local congregation of my Church who connected me with some young single fellas who let me sleep on the floor of their apartment (I had brought a sleeping bag with me) during my stay in the area.
The training was interesting and I successfully passed to become a Fred Pryor seminar facilitator.
However, the three days did not pass without some self-inflicted drama on my part.
The second day of the training I locked my keys in my car and had to be picked up (late) by one of my fellow trainers who was also enrolled in the training. This careless error was embarrassing and made me look irresponsible.
Later that same day, my supervisors declined my request to teach a course on leadership and tasked me instead with starting off by teaching a course on grammar and proofreading. I faulted my resumé for this unanticipated ask. I had a bachelor's degree in English and despite my growing theoretical knowledge about leadership and management, had relatively little experience as a manager or leader in real world settings.
It made perfect sense for them to assign me this seminar to teach.
Nevertheless, after all the effort I had invested in studying leadership, not to mention creating my own original material on personal leadership, it felt insulting to be asked to teach a course on grammar and proofreading. At the time, it sounded to me like just about the last soft skills course I actually wanted to teach.
I felt so frustrated by this move on their part that I considered giving up and driving home before the training had ended. Fortunately, I had enough common sense to recognize that my options were limited at this point in my life and career.
Indeed, in August 2007, I was a beggar, not a chooser, and failing to complete the course after all the time, effort, and money I had already invested in the process would have been an epically foolish and profoundly prideful move—and I knew it.
I therefore had no legitimate option but to humble myself, suck it up, become a team player, and graciously accept their offer to teach the grammar and proofreading course. The following day, I apologized to one of my supervisors for my initial complaint and expressed my gratitude for and willingness to teach the grammar and proofreading course.
Ironically, I ended up not only excelling at teaching the grammar and proofreading course, but it became one of my favorite seminars to teach—by far.
I had initially feared it would be dry and boring like a college-level class on the subject. But my worries were unmerited as the class was designed for a lay professional audience and had a lot of fun elements interwoven therein.
Teaching this particular seminar—and others like is such as business writing, technical writing, and email etiquette—proved to be hugely valuable to me personally because of the way in which they took my writing and communication skills to higher and higher levels. I learned so many things teaching those courses that fine-tuned my own skills in these areas that I now see that Serendipity was even more interested in what I was learning by teaching the courses than it was in what my audience members were learning by taking the courses.
Moreover, because I taught these seminars over-and-over again, these lessons were deeply imbedded into my consciousness and long-term memory. Thus, they became a permanent addition to my professional toolbox of skills and talents and I would never forget them.
I have found that Life and Serendipity are often ironic—and prescient—in such ways.
They seem to know exactly what we need and when we need it—far more clearly and precisely than we do. If we will put our trust in them, they will always have our backs.
At least that has been my remarkably consistent experience.
After the self-inflicted drama of my certification had blown over, I was immensely relieved to sign an official contract as a Fred Pryor contract trainer / seminar facilitator.
As a contractor, I went without many of the benefits of a salaried employee. For example, I did not receive any medical or dental benefits. I also did not receive a base salary or any bonuses. Lastly, there were no opportunities for positional advancements or titular promotions.
I did receive a modest seminar speaker's fe ($200 per public seminar and $300 per on-site seminar). I also received sales' commissions on a graduated remunerative scale. In other words, the more product I sold, the more commission I made.
Since I was never very good at sales—despite a lot of sales' training and experience over the years—I never made much money on commission. Consequently, my income from Fred Pryor was never as appealing as the work itself, which involved a lot of travel and opportunities to influence others as a teacher, speaker, and professional coach.
Nevertheless, like so many of my previous work experiences, the value I received in non-financial benefits, such as education, experience, travel, and skill- and resumé-building was, again, worth its weight in gold and produced many wonderful memories I will always cherish.
One of the requirements of contracting with Fred Pryor was to have an active credit card with a $2,500 minimum line of credit. With my decimated credit score, procuring a new card in my own name was not an option at this point in time. Fortunately, I was able to persuade my mother to let me take a card out in her name with the promise I would only use it for Fred Pryor business expenses and I would pay it off on time every month.
Without exception, I kept this promise.
A month after certification, Fred Pryor booked me for my first "Seminar Run" consiting of four all-day grammar and proofreading courses in Texas. The first of these four courses was in College Station, home of Texas A&M University, Kyle Field (Home of the 12th Man), and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.
When I arrived in Houston en route to this first seminar in College Station, I had nary a cent to my name besides one credit card in my mom's name. Upon attempting to purchase my first meal, the card was declined.
I momentarily panicked!
How was I going to make it four days without any food when I did not have any cash and my lone credit card did not work?
Fortunately, a quick call to the credit card company resolved what turned out to be a minor issue and I was able to eat that evening—and for the rest of my first trip.
PHEW!
That first seminar run went well and included additional stops to teach the same grammar and proofreading all-day course in Beaumont, Galveston, and Houston, Texas, before I flew home to Atlanta.
It had taken me over four (4) long years after graduating from college, but I was finally receiving my first professional level wages on a consistent basis. Despite this hopeful progress, my financial troubles had not abated much. I remained consistently one or two payments behind on my car. Somehow, by the grace of Serendipity and the charity of my dad and cousin, I avoided repossession until I eventually paid my vehicle off.
Turning Point
By early 2008, I had received several additional paid seminar bookings at high schools and colleges in North Carolina and Georgia, but it was not enough to get my ever-fledgling business off the ground. Along the way, I remained under terrible stress about my financial future.
What if I couldn't make ends meet?
Was Freedom Focused ever going to take off?
And then there was my breakup with Lina in late October 2007—a mere month after I had begun contract training.
Such collective anxiety led me to consider a career opportunity in the military. I had previously looked into this option back in Utah in 2004, but learned I was ineligible because I was taking medication for depression—a categorical disqualifier at the time.
I was no longer on medication in 2007.
One of my roommates at the time was a Captain in the U.S. Army and had recently returned home from a combat tour in Iraq. As a college graduate, I could join the Army and quickly become an officer. Such a move would guarantee a consistent stream of professional income for the first time in my adult life.
I had always admired those who served in the military and considered it to be an honorable profession. However, while it would provide me with some income stability, it would also be an enormous deviation from my desired career path.
I was concurrently concerned about the future of my relationship with Lina. She was a budding—and brilliant—mechanical engineer who would be able to write her own ticket in the business world after she graduated. How might pursuing a military career impact my chances with her?
What if we ended up breaking up... for good?
Despite my gradually improving circumstances and newly acquired contract training position, such questions lingered and produced plenty of angst in my mind and heart.
It would certainly have been an honor to serve my Country in uniform. However, I also knew that I was poorly suited for military service because of my history of mental illness, as well as possessing the same personality traits that had made my full-time missionary service so challenging.
Fortunately, I was able to forego my consideration of this alternative, military route once my work with Fred Pryor started to take off and once Lina and I had gotten back together.
Prior to signing my contract with Fred Pryor, I had received a little help again from my Church to make a couple of additional rent payments in 2007. I was also blessed with a compassionate and understanding roommate who was very forgiving of me making late payments. (24)
Suffice it to say, Serendipity was smiling on me from a variety of different angles in my life and career, thus magnifying my imperfect, but best SAL efforts.
To my joy and immense gratitude, Fred Pryor kept my work schedule pretty full throughout the rest of 2007 and 2008. These bookings provided me with opportunities to travel all over the eastern, central, and southern United States. I have always loved to travel, so it was a marvelous adventure and an enriching opportunity and resume building goldmine. It also provided me with invaluable platform experience as a professional speaker and seminar facilitator.
Before long, I was making enough money to punctually pay my bills for the first time in a long time. I was also able to begin making token payments on the non-interest bearing debts I owed my immediate and extended family members.
In February 2008, Lina accepted my proposal of marriage. We had been talking about marriage since May 2007, but I had to be patient in the relationship as Lina was not as comfortable with pulling the marriage trigger as I was at first. However, in hindsight, I better understand the value and wisdom of waiting for my own progress and maturation personally, professionally, and financially.
"My darling—my darling—my life and my bride." (25)
For whatever reasons, Lina always had a lot of faith in me, and was ultimately willing to take the marital plunge in spite of my debt and OCD.
Marriage is always a leap of faith on one level or another—no matter how propitious a couple's circumstances and prospects. But my prospects and circumstances were not particularly glowing in 2008, at least not to the naked eye of a close observer. Knowing, in hindsight, how conscious Lina is about finances—and how effective she is at managing money—it amazes me that my debt in 2008 did not bother her more than it did. The fact that she was willing to proceed with marrying me is a miracle I must chalk up to Lina's faith and the grace and mercy of Serendipity.
Obviously Lina was biased toward me because we were so deeply in love. Nevertheless, I had been honest about my challenges with mental illness and fully transparent about the amount of debt I had incurred building Freedom Focused. So she was at least marginally aware of what she was getting herself into by tying the knot with me.
Suffice it to say, I will forever be grateful to Lina—and any Serendipitous forces at play—for their immense faith in me despite the infelicitous career path I had trodden up to that point in time. My journey had been akin to scaling a treacherous, rocky, and incredibly steep mountain face; yet, she willingly chose to continue the struggle right there alongside me.
Indeed, once committed, Lina never wavered in her love and support for me. Whether it was $70,000 of debt or a dwindling food supply; she was always there for me through thick and thin.
For example, one Sunday evening in mid 2007 during a particularly tight financial spot before I had begun my training work with Fred Pryor, Lina lovingly—and almost unthinkingly—filled a box of food for me out of her own, modest college student pantry so I would have enough to eat that week.
Truth be told, it was an embarrassing moment for me.
But it simultaneously filled my mind, heart, and soul with joy and gratitude—and made me feel incredibly cared for an unconditionally loved.
What a woman!
It was truly remarkable to me that someone as gifted, talented, intelligent, and beautiful as Lina could see beyond my present position and penury and perceive my long-term potential.
Or, maybe she was just truly blinded by our being so in-LOVE with each other!
I suppose it was ultimately a combination of both.
Whatever the final case or equation may have been, I'll forever be grateful to her for sticking by me even—and especially—when my bank account was empty and my prospects appeared dim and lowly.
On August 8, 2008 (8/8/8)—a very propitious date, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple of our Church.
Lina's and my Wedding Day
Salt Lake City, Utah
8/8/08
After our wedding, we honeymooned for a week in a Marriott hotel time-share in the Phoenix, Arizona area that my dad and step-mom had gifted us as a wedding present. At week's end, we boarded separate planes at Sky Harbor International Airport to fly back East—Lina to Atlanta, and me to Orlando.
It was sad to not be on the plane with my beautiful, precious, and amazing new wife, but Lina had to get ready for her senior year at Georgia Tech and I was on my way to teach four all-day seminars in Florida—a tangible sign of my growing self-reliance and career success.
I continued teaching seminars throughout the Fall, and was being booked with increasing regularity.
In October 2008, I had my biggest month-to-date: 15 all-day seminars in 15 different cities. I made almost twice as much money in one month as I had during the entire year of 2005. Moreover, I was no longer just teaching grammar and proofreading courses. As I began to prove myself, Fred Pryor started allowing me to teach a variety of different soft skill courses on writing and communication—and eventually on management and leadership as well. It was an incredible turnaround for me, and it felt enormously satisfying to be entirely earning my own keep and paying my bills on time.
Taking a Break from Business Building
The more time I spent as a traveling contract trainer for Fred Pryor, the less interested I became in building Freedom Focused. I had been significantly sobered by the massive amounts of failure, disappointment, disillusionment, and debt I had experienced as an upstart entrepreneur between 2005 and 2008.
I felt like a badly beaten boxer who had finally tapped out—and had no appetite to take any more licks.
Though I had rebounded nicely with Fred Pryor, I was still up to my eyeballs in debt and felt like a miserable failure as an entrepreneur. Healing from these devastating wounds would take time.
In hindsight, it is almost comically ironic that I set out to become a Covey or Robbins to a teenage audience. I did not particularly like or relate to teenagers when I was in my 20s. In fact, I did not particularly like or relate to teenagers when I was a teenager myself.
It has never been an audience I was truly excited to work with.
So, why did I pursue this pathway so passionately?
My decision in the matter was largely a matter of perceived personal expedience. In other words, I thought I had no other choice because of my age.
From 2003 to the present day, my ultimate goal has never really changed much. I have always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Stephen R. Covey and my Uncle Hyrum as an author, speaker, thought leader, and training CEO—and primarily for adults.
It was a very simple goal in theory.
In actual practice, however, I was far too young and inexperienced to accomplish such a grandiose and ambitious goal as quickly as I wanted.
This fact and reality has been an enormous thorn in my side and a perpetual frustration for me throughout my life and career. Nevertheless, as I have come to discover painfully and repeatedly over the years, there really isn't any authentic or legitimate way around the "age problem."
Other adults simply do not take someone in their 20s or 30s as seriously as they take someone in their 40s or 50s (or older), not because a 20-something or 30-something is lacking in formal education or talent; but because they are lacking in experiential, on-the-job, real-life wisdom.
This is not to say that you have to be old to be wise.
You don't necessarily.
It simply means that sometimes you have to be older to possess the necessary personal authenticity and professional credibility to be taken seriously by a professional audience of adults.
Not only was I younger than most adult professionals, I had the added drawback of looking a lot younger than I actually was. To wit: I am eight (8) years older than Lina and turned 29 thirteen days after our wedding. But, if you take a look at a picture of us when we were dating, we both could have passed for being teenagers.
Lina and me in May 2007
Ages 19 and 27, respectively.
Mid-career professionals and their supervisors simply would not have given me a significant chance teaching management or leadership at that point in my career.
They knew it.
And I knew it.
As such, it made sense to me that my best bet would be to target teenage and young adult audiences, with whom I would have some credibility. The problem is that despite any and all knowledge and talent I may have brought to the table, my heart was never fully into this audience, and that fact hurt my own internal enthusiasm and external credibility.
Moreover, if there is one key lesson I have learned about public speaking, it is that you cannot fool your audience. In other words, they can sense how you feel about them; and they will detect a phony in a heartbeat.
The reason I failed in my original intention is because my original intention was fatally flawed.
You will never be supremely successful at anything unless your mind, heart, and soul are fully invested.
My mind, heart, and soul were never fully invested in the adolescent audience. Nor was I ever fully invested in the sales, marketing, or operations aspect of being an entrepreneur and business builder. In my
heart-of-hearts, I am, have been, and always will be a teacher, speaker, poet, philosopher, and LEADER, not a manager, marketer, salesperson, operator, or financier.
In other words, I failed in part because I was an imposter!
I also failed because of my lack of desire to succeed in the sales and marketing aspect of the game.
A good friend of mine who is also a sales expert teaches that: Anyone with a desire can thrive and succeed in sales if they receive and implement the proper training. (26)
I believe him. It is, after all, the same thing countless sales trainers have told me over the years: anyone can do it with desire and the right training.
I have had lots of sales training over the years; but, I've never had any authentic desire to be a salesman!
As Hamlet would say...
Ay, there's the rub! (27)
I also failed because in my impatient zeal to become successful quickly, I tried to do and be everything to everyone—at least until I could afford to hire others to take on those roles for which I was more poorly suited. As a result, I stretched myself too thinly and burned out from a practical standpoint; and I got distracted in my focus from an existential and authenticity standpoint.
Moving forward, I would gradually abandon my misdirected focus on youthful audiences and pursue the long, slow slog required to do and become what was authentically in my mind, heart, and soul all along.
Little did I know at the time just how long, slow, and gradual that painfully pleasurable SLOG would turn out to be.
But in the end, it would all be worth it.
Or, at least I continued to HOPE and exercise FAITH that it would be.
And when you are an eternal optimist, as I am, Faith Springs Eternal.
Our Fortunes Flourish as Wall Street Crashes
That fall—2008—the infamous housing crisis and Wall Street financial meltdown signaled the beginning of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
As the nation's money woes were just beginning, mine were ironically coming to an end.
I continued teaching seminars while Lina—now a senior in college—dedicated a growing portion of her time each week to attending career fairs and applying for entry-level jobs at major corporations around the country.
Like the fall of 2003 following my own graduation from college, the fall of 2008 was not an ideal time to be looking for work, generally speaking. However, Lina's impressive resumé, the added mystique of Georgia Tech's engineering prestige, and her tireless personal efforts on the job trail more than compensated for the macroecomonic challenges of the time.
Her diligent and focused efforts—in between managing a full load of classes and her new marriage to me—paid off. That fall, she traveled to four or five different states to interview with multiple Fortune 500 companies, most of whom made her a lucrative job offer.
In December 2008, she accepted an offer with a Fortune 100 corporation in Houston, Texas, making a starting salary that was flirting with six figures.
We both reeled with excitement at the good news.
I was very proud of her accomplishment and showered her with hugs, kisses, and confetti when she arrived home from school that evening.
She was only 21 years old when she graduated from college in May 2009 with a near-perfect grade-point average (GPA). She had also gained three (3) semesters of full-time work experience with an Atlanta-based engineering firm as part of Georgia Tech's cooperative work program.
This obscure, middle-class girl had risen from modest beginnings in Homestead, Florida to earn a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from one of the top public universities in America—and the world. She had then followed it up by landing a job with the largest and most profitable public energy company in the United States.
And this obscure, middle-class boy had risen from modest beginnings in rural southeastern Utah to meet, court, marry, and begin building a life with that Sweet Lass from Homestead.
We were both young, healthy, resilient, strong, motivated, and crazy in-love with each other.
The world was our oyster.
Hand-in-hand, we marched into our future gratefully, enthusiastically, and full of optimism.
Time to Celebrate
Following Lina's graduation in May 2009, her new employer paid to have our belongings professionally moved to our new apartment in Houston. Such treatment was a very fancy perk to which we were unaccustomed at that point in our lives.
We then used a small portion of Lina's signing bonus to go on a weeklong cruise to the Western Caribbean to celebrate Lina's graduation from college and landing her first post-collegiate job.
Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, and as we sailed away—hand-in-hand—from the Port of Miami that perfectly picturesque spring afternoon, I tried my best to soak in the grandeur and majesty of the moment—which represented the culmination of so much hard work and struggle over the course of many years on both of our parts.
Our opportunity to enjoy such a luxury evinced that our lives were changing in significant and positive ways. We now had money to do things we could only dream of just a few months previously. More importantly, we had the financial power to pay our bills, shrink our debts, and begin saving for the future.
It took us several years, but in the spring of 2012, we made our last debt payment. Every single cent that either of us had ever been loaned—to build Freedom Focused or attend Georgia Tech—had been paid back in full (28)
Changing Course amid the Great Recession
As 2009 dawned, the economic recession that had been strangling the American and global economies took aim at the contract training industry, causing most of my business with Fred Pryor to dry up.
In a few short months, I went from getting 10-15 seminar bookings per month to a mere one or two.
It was frustrating to see my progress stunted by forces beyond my control. I had only been a contract trainer for 18 months when the bottom fell out.
And I had been making such progress!
Nevertheless, as a self-action leader, I knew I must remain focused on what I could control and, in the words of the Poet, Keep a-goin! (29)
With my professional opportunities drastically limited yet again, I decided to turn my attention toward increasing my formal education. That spring, I was accepted into Fielding Graduate University's doctoral program in education. I learned about FGU from Dr. Bruce Jackson, my old boss at The Center for the Advancement of Leadership, who had earned a couple of advanced degrees from Fielding.
Fielding's Doctor of education program appealed to me because of the independent pedagogical approach they employed, which granted me the leverage I sought to direct my own educational journey and call my own shots in the design and creation of my dissertation. This paved the way for me to continue to develop, refine, and polish the work I had already undertaken in the FIRST and SECOND Editions of the SAL textbook.
Despite weathering another seeming career delay, I welcomed the opportunity to pursue a terminal degree and acquire the added credibility and status that would accompany credentialed letters after my name. And the most magical part of the whole deal is that thanks to Lina's new job, I would be able to attend school debt-free!
I was fortunate and blessed in so many different ways to be Lina's husband that on some days it was hard to believe it was even real. Such is the miracle and majesty of SAL working hand-in-hand with the favor, grace, and mercy of Serendipity! Ever since, I have always striven my imperfect best to never take this extraordinary blessing and privilege for granted.
I began my Doctoral studies in June 2009. Thanks to this advancement in my education, I became familiar with the scholarly fields of self-leadership, action research, and autoethnography—all of which would play pivotal roles in my dissertation research and writing, and hugely influence later editions of the SAL Textbook.
My Doctoral studies—in conjunction with all of the professional communication and other seminars I had been teaching—elevated me to higher and more sophisticated levels as a thinker, teacher, speaker, and writer. I also searched out creative ways to productively build upon the work I had already begun in the first two editions of the SAL Textbook.
I fleshed out and then inked these new ideas in my Doctoral dissertation, which became the de facto THIRD Edition of the SAL Textbook, published in 2013.
JJ's 4-Volume, 1,149-page Doctoral Dissertation
Published in 2013
My Year Teaching High School
By the spring of 2009, my seminar work with Fred Pryor had almost entirely disappeared due to the shrinking training market caused by the Great Recession of 2008. When times are tough financially, the first things to get slashed in a company's budget are non-essential items, including Quadrant II (30) oriented soft-skills training.
All of the soft skill seminars I taught for Fred Pryor fell into this category.
This disappointing reality led me to seek out alternative employment as a full-time classroom teacher.
Knowing we would be moving soon to Houston, Texas, for Lina's new job following her college graduation in April, I began the process of becoming certified to teach in the State of Texas several months before we left Georgia. Fortunately, I was granted access to an online program that allowed me to complete the process virtually.
After moving to Houston, I completed online applications with five (5) different school districts in the greater Houston area. I also emailed virtual resumes to school that were advertising open positions online.
This online job search bore little fruit and secured zero interviews.
Then, an experienced local educator advised me to personally visit schools to drop off resumés and make face-to-face contacts with school administrators. I explained to her that many schools explicitly requested that applicants not make personal visits.
She replied matter-of-factly: "If you want a teaching job, you need to go out and make personal contacts."
Intuitively, I knew she was right, but had been hesitant to leave my comfort zone and begin making personal visits. It was so much easier to just keep filling out applications and clicking "send" from the comfort of my home computer. Nevertheless, as a self-action leader, I recognized that if I really wanted a job, it was incumbent upon me to take The Road Less Traveled, (31) and engage the harder (yet smarter) work head-on.
Donning
—
Adventures in Newfoundland
Asdf
—
Back to Houston
Asdf
—
Hiking the Inca Trail
Asdf
—
Step-up to SkillPath
Asdf
—
Retiring from Contract Training
Asdf
—
Teaching Online Webinars
Asdf
—
Serendipitous Side Projects
Asdf
—
SAL Textbook Editions FOUR and FIVE
Asdf
—
Try, Fail, Adjust, Repeat...
Asdf
—
Testing the Waters of Higher Education
Asdf
—
More Failed Business Building Efforts
Asdf
—
Additional Rejection from Academia
Asdf
—
Stay-at-Home Daddying
Asdf
—
What of Freedom Focused?
Asdf
—
SIXTH Edition of the SAL Textbook
Asdf
—
College Football Fail
Asdf
—
The Challenge of Enduring Unending Uncertainty
Asdf
—
Navigating the Absence of External Feedback,
Advancement, and Recognition
Asdf
—
Parable of the Rock Pusher
Asdf
—
My Quest to Simplify
Asdf
—
Refining My Blogger's Focus
Asdf
—
Waiting
Asdf
—
An Authentic SAL Success Story
Asdf
—
—Dr. JJ
Chapter 5 Notes
1. Talmage, J.E. (1984). Articles of Faith. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Company. Chapter 5.
2. Neck, C.P. and Manz, C.C. (2010). Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence. Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Page 1. "If we ever hope to be effective leaders of others, we need first to be able to lead ourselves effectively."
3. FLOW refers to a state of optimal performance accompanied by positive emotions and a deep sense of personal satisfaction and fulfillment. It can lead to high levels of productivity and achievement. For more information on FLOW, see the following resources:
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
- Jackson, B.H. (2011). Finding Your Flow: How to Identify Your Flow Assets and Liabilities—the Keys to Peak Performance Every Day. College Station, TX. Virtualbookworm.com Publishing.
4. King's College, London, England.
5. A reference to Disney's Beauty and the Beast movies.
6. Smith, H.W. (1994). The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management: Proven Strategies for Increased Productivity and Inner Peace. New York, NY: Warner Books. Page 4.
7. A comment that Richard M. Andrus, my Mission President, made to me near the completion of my 2-year, full-time missionary service to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from February 1999 - March 2001.
8. To graduate, I needed 120 credit hours. When I graduated, I had completed exactly 120 credit hours. No more and no less. I have always been very proud of this fact, and would often shake my head in dismay when I'd see or hear of students accruing far more credits than were required to graduate and otherwise stay in school much longer than necessary. To each their own, of course; but I was in a hurry to be done!
9. Permission was required to take more than 18 credit hours per semester. I obtained this permission more than once in order to take upwards of 22 credit hours per semester.
10. Rasmussen, D.M. and Colonna, P. (1981). The Power of Trying Again: Featuring the Story of Abraham Lincoln. (PowerTales). Antioch, CA: Eagle Systems International. Page 59.
11. Phrase from the last line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's legendary poem, A Psalm of Life.
12. FLOW refers to a state of optimal performance accompanied by positive emotions and a deep sense of personal satisfaction and fulfillment. It can lead to high levels of productivity and achievement. For more information on FLOW, see the following resources:
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
- Jackson, B.H. (2011). Finding Your Flow: How to Identify Your Flow Assets and Liabilities—the Keys to Peak Performance Every Day. College Station, TX. Virtualbookworm.com Publishing.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Some student feedback was constructive and some was apathetic, but there was very little negative feedback.
16. Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If. Stanza 3. Lines 1-2.
17. Ironically, I eventually did service one client as an English tutor; however, the job did not materialize until about 15 months after I had delivered my fliers. By that time, I had already begun to rebound financially.
18. The last sentence of this journal entry was added years later.
19. Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If. Stanza 3. Lines 1-2.
20. Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If. Stanza 3. Line 3.
21. Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If. Stanza 2. Lines 7-8.
22. Stanton, F.L. (1922). One Hundred and One Famous Poems. Cook, R.J. (Ed.). Chicago, IL: The Cable Company. Google Books version. Page 135.
23. A made-up word coined by the LDS Pioneer, Jens Nielson (1821-1906) used to describe the act of sticking to a task until it is complete.
24. I had lived with my cousins, Steve and Ida Anderson, for 11 months—from June 2006 - May 2007—while I got back on my feet. I then moved out into an apartment with a friend from my church. I made my own rent payments from then on.
25. Edgar Allan Poe's timeless love poem, Annabel Lee. Stanza 6. Line 6.
26. Kelly, D. (2022). Sell it Like a Mango: A New Seller's Guide to Closing More Deals. Shippensburg, PA: Sound Wisdom. Page 10.
27. Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Act III. Scene I. Line 73.
28. There were two exceptions to this. FIRST, a sum of $3,500 that my paternal grandmother (LaVerda Jensen) loaned me to start Freedom Focused, but then later re-designated as a gift. SECOND, my wonderful and ever-generous maternal Aunt (Ruth S. Silver), who had paid for much of my college tuition, kindly forgave a loan of approximately $7,500 a couple of months after I started making token repayments in 2008. My largest personal debt of $33,000 had been loaned me by my mother. This—and all other debts, both public and private—were paid off in full by the spring of 2012.
29. Keep a-Goin is a poem written by Frank L. Stanton (1857-1927) and reprinted earlier on in this chapter.
30. Quadrant II refers to Stephen R. Covey's four quadrants of time management and productivity.
- Quadrant I refers to activities that are URGENT and IMPORTANT
- Quadrant of Management and putting out fires
- Quadrant II activities are IMPORTANT but not URGENT
- Quadrant of Leadership, Planning, and Prevention
- Quadrant III activities are URGENT but not IMPORTANT
- Quadrant of distraction
- Quadrant IV activities are neither URGENT nor IMPORTANT
- Quadrant of wasted time
Covey, S.R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
31. Peck, MN.S. (1978). The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth. New York, NY: Touchstone.
—Dr. JJ
Friday, October 10, 2025
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 485th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 274th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 484 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles
.........................
Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
If you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to bookmark this blog to access a new FREE article every Wednesday.
Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks
No comments:
Post a Comment