ONE STORY

Walt Disney wasn’t born into success. He wasn’t handed credibility. And he definitely wasn’t told, “You've got our blessing.”

He was reportedly fired from The Kansas City Star for not being creative enough.

He created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit—only to have the rights stolen and his animation team gutted.

That betrayal? It led directly to the birth of Mickey Mouse. And, again, when he pitched this new idea—a talking mouse with heart—he was told it wouldn’t work.

When he dreamed of Di...

The fastest way to feel smart is to decide who’s not.
Label. Dismiss. Move on.

He’s lazy.
She’s entitled.
They’re arrogant.
Karen.
Woke.
MAGA.
Liberal.
Uneducated.
Out of touch.

Sorted. Boxed. Gone.

Why do we do this?

Kierkegaard said, “You label me so you can negate me.”

Also…It saves us time. Nuance takes effort. Curiosity requires humility.

The fallacy in it all?

What we label, we stop learning from.
What we dismiss, we can’t understand.
What we reduce, we never fully see.

If your job is to grow—y...

 Just because we want something to be true doesn’t make it so.

Too many of us are holding on.

To an outcome we expected.
To a system that used to work.
To the belief that if management just got it, if the coach just saw us, if the market just settled down, things would be different.

At some point, we have to stop.

Stop arguing with reality.
Stop defending the past.
Stop waiting for someone else to fix it.

The truth is, isolation basketball ruled—until ball movement won championships.
Sears ...

Fear isn’t the problem.

It’s the moment after.

The hesitation. The second-guessing. The debate in your head.

You see the flaw in the plan but stay quiet—what if you're wrong? The final shot is yours, but you freeze—what if you miss? The idea sits in your head, full of promise, but you stall—what if they don’t like it?

Fear is universal. We all feel it. But what happens next? That’s the difference.

That split second—where you either step forward or step back. Where you take the leap or let f...

You see something others don’t.

A vision. An idea. A way to serve the people around you.

It lives in you—and only you.

But no one is asking you to bring it to life. No one is knocking on your door, insisting you build, create, or share what only you can see.

So you wait.

You wait to feel inspired, to be pulled forward by some external force. You assume motivation comes before action.

But that’s not how it works.

The Fuel Doesn’t Kick In Until the Engine’s Running

Think about it.

The fir...

One Story

A Company Built by Following Your Values

Yvon Chouinard never set out to build a company. He just needed better gear.

In the 1950s, Chouinard taught himself blacksmithing and started forging his own climbing pitons—metal spikes climbers hammer into rock faces for support. The ones on the market weren’t strong enough for the kind of climbing he wanted to do.

So he made his own. By hand. Tested them himself. And when his climbing partners saw what he was using, they wanted some too.