Motivated Innovation

2013 (left) or 2023 (right), who is your pick?

My focus for 2023: 'back to basics'. What does that look like? Some of that is just for me to know. However, I hope to get more writing in during 2023! 

It has been a busy 2021, for a lot of good reasons. May 2022 bring hope and joy! 

  "Almost everything in life worth doing is controlled by the Dip."   Would you agree?   In 2007, Seth Godin wrote The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) . Godin talks about the importance of being "the best in the world" when pursuing long-term pursuits. Being "the best in the world" in this context is not so much being the #1 person in the world at a particular craft but rather being a top person in a particular customer's/market's world of access.  Much like his other books (and other authors' books), he provides numerous examples of "the dip" at work in various industries and activities. "The dip" is the lengthy learning curve and performance curve between first exposure to something and becoming an expert. Godin distinguishes this from "the cul-de-sac" (endless efforts going nowhere) and "the cliff" (long-term efforts initially seeming good that eventually drop off a...

#10yearchallenge I'm wearing the same sweater in the top two photos. Meanwhile, the bottom two photos are of me at commencement ceremonies in Dec. '09 at BGSU and May '19 at JCU. Facebook and Instagram recently ran a hashtag called the "#10yearchallenge". Social media users were asked to post comparative photos of themselves from 10 years ago (2009) and this year (2019). Oftentimes, in moments like these, it is easy to get fixated on visible physical differences between ourselves now and 10 years ago. How do we look different? How is our hair? How is our face? How is our body? What about the clothes we are wearing? Observing the external, physical bodies that we have is natural and healthy. Yet, such moments like these also allow us to reflect upon how we have changed in other aspects of our lives. How have we changed emotionally? How have we changed mentally? How have we changed spiritually? How have we changed socially? In some cases, our changes are ...

For many students, their first exposure to study skills came from their first teachers, their parents, and/or older siblings and cousins. In many cases, students were told to read the books, take notes (whether from the books, on the chalkboard, on the marker board, or on PowerPoint slides), and study from their books and notes. All students have experienced at least some degree of success. In looking back at my own education, I know that much emphasis was made on studying details. A large portion of elementary-level education involves learning and memorizing basic facts. However, such an approach may or may not work for people when they get to higher levels of education. How do you process information? Are you a big picture thinker? Are you detail-oriented? Are you a combination of both?  As a business major in my initial undergraduate and graduate studies, I learned much about big picture thinking. While I was a highly successful student in grade school and high school, ...

"Smile." As a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling, one of my favorite theories is Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. According to Erikson, there are 8 psychosocial stages of development that each person goes through over the course of his/her life. As I have seen personally and for other people, being optimistic, thinking positively, and thinking big can feel more difficult with each psychosocial stage as we face many challenges and obstacles. Putting it bluntly: failure hurts. Failure isn't fun. It stinks. In struggling and failing, we often lose optimism, positive thinking, and big thinking. How can we thrive if we cannot survive? My transition from predominantly business work to predominantly counseling work began during my days as an MBA graduate student 9 years ago. One of my organizational development (OD) professors told us the story of her deciding to pursue a doctorate and become a professor. For her, she turned to a...

My high school graduation took place at John Carroll University. Several years ago, I had the honor of being one of the speakers at my high school graduation.  I spoke about my high school experiences--good ones and bad ones--and different emotions felt. I concluded my speech with the following words: From day one, they told us to remember to always "seek what is above".  As we head in different directions and move on with our lives, may I add:  Let us remember to always seek what is within. Since then, I have graduated with a couple business degrees, worked in the business world, and returned to school to become a career counselor and EAP (employee assistance program) counselor. Over time, I have learned that to 'seek what is within' is the start of a bigger process. In one of my first counseling classes, a professor showed us a YouTube video featuring comedian Michael Jr. In the video, Michael discusses the difference between ‘what’ and ‘...

"Dream, dream your way through Your dreams are elastic Your dreams are the keys to the future Write your life story, a best-selling classic Dream, dream your way through The highs, the lows, the dramatic Your dreams are the true path of least resistance See all the possibilities when you let yourself imagine" -Excerpt from the poem " Dream Your Way Through "  (c) 2011 Richard A. Fajardo. I submitted this poem to Helium.com in 2011 for the poetry topic "The path of least resistance". In life, we are taught to be realistic. We are taught to be practical. We are taught to be rational. Of course, there are times when this is absolutely necessary and true. But, is this always the case? In the above video, Arthur Boorman dealt with the aftermath of serving in the military during the Gulf War.  The physical deterioration left him in poor physical condition--he was considered physically disabled. Medical doctors were convinced that h...

Recently, we retired the team blog "Welcome, International Students!" that was created by a few of us colleagues who had met through the BGSU MBA program. In turn, I have carried over seven of my blog posts from there over to Motivated Innovation. These past posts include: Stand Tall and Feel Welcome 12/16/15 A Kid's Perspective 1/9/14 US News Provides 6 Good Tips for New International Grad Students 7/30/12 Remembering 4 Years Ago... 6/26/12 Understanding (A Follow-up to "U.S. University Classes") 5/31/12 U.S. University Classes: Interactive, Not Just Lectures 4/13/12 Searching for a Job in Today's U.S. 3/11/12 Topics include culture and diversity, education, and international students. Please feel free to check out each of these posts!

On Monday night, Clemson University won its second football national championship. They avenged their loss in the championship game last year by winning a rematch with the University of Alabama. Aside from enjoying the postgame comments from coach Dabo Swinney, quarterback Deshaun Watson, and linebacker Ben Boulware, I remembered a long, pleasant conversation I had while flying from Salt Lake City to Detroit back in November 2015. On this flight, I was sitting next to an older gentleman--Tom--who was traveling with his wife and another couple. In talking with Tom, I learned that he was a big Clemson fan. As we watched multiple games of college football simultaneously on the airplane monitors, I found out that he had played years ago with a Division II program. In fact, Tom was the starting quarterback and his friend across the aisle was one of the starting wide receivers. Tom also met his wife at this college. He did mention that his wife was a fan of another university's ...

Five years ago, Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer wrote an article about Joe Haden making his presence felt throughout Northeast Ohio . As a new player in town, Haden did his part in attending different charity events and sporting events while also creating other opportunities to interact with fans. His father stated: "You'd think all kinds of marketing guys were behind it, but it's just Joe being Joe. He's a good kid and he likes to have fun. He's done a better job than any marketing firm could." I was pretty impressed. Based on this article and other stories I had heard, Haden had established himself as a good role model for networking in business and social settings. When I worked in a sales and marketing job a couple years ago, I kept a printed copy of this article at my desk and reread it regularly. What networking lessons can we learn from Joe Haden? 1) Be open to networking. Haden: "I say yes a lot more than I say no. I like interac...

"Say" by John Mayer was the theme song for the 2007 film The Bucket List . I actually just saw the film for the first time this morning. While it got mixed reviews, I really enjoyed it; I found it to be a very heartwarming movie. When I was younger, the concept of a bucket list seemed to only be about far out, one-off, random activities that people hoped to do at some point in their lives. Whether talking to adults or children, people often talked about extreme activities such as skydiving, bungee jumping, or climbing a mountain or exotic trips such as going on a Caribbean cruise or traveling through the Hawaiian islands. Over the years, I have learned that bucket lists are not just about heart pounding adventures. There are numerous goals that people have that are quite thrilling to them, even if they would come across as simple or mundane to other people. As the movie The Bucket List  showed, some of the best goals are simple yet profound gestures that touch the live...

*Originally published on the blog for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (GTAC-ATD) in 2016.  I start with the disclaimer that I am not a botanist. I never had pets growing up, so my mom’s house plants were like my pets. I helped water them when I was younger until I was promoted to helping my dad with mowing the lawn. I eventually learned more about flowers and landscaping when working in city maintenance for a couple of summers. With that said, how are employees like plants? What can we learn from plant growth and apply to employee talent development? Simply put: like plants, employees need proper resources and a good environment in order to survive and grow. Most house plants need water, sunlight, and heat to grow. With proper amounts of these resources, these plants can grow from small seeds into big, tall plants. In many cases, house plants need to be moved to bigger pots in order to continue living. That is, their roots co...

In browsing my LinkedIn and Facebook feeds this week, I came across a couple video clips of Steve Harvey. In one clip, Harvey was speaking with Oprah Winfrey; in the other clip (shown above), he was talking on his own talk show. In both videos, Harvey spoke about pursuing dreams. Everyone has hopes and dreams. Likewise, each one of us has different gifts--different talents and skills--that we have to offer to our families, our friends, and the rest of society. Some people may help nurture and harness your dreams. On the other hand, other people may make fun of your dreams, even bringing you down in public. The story Harvey shares in the above video is both sad and inspirational. Thankfully, he stayed true to his dreams and his gifts, listened to his father, and became the successful comedian and humanitarian that he is today. Over the past several months, I have been thinking about a new mantra: "Lead with your bucket list." While I do not have all the answers I need ...

*Originally published on the blog for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (GTAC-ATD) in 2016.  There is a long-standing adage that states: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” While this saying has been widely accepted across many generations, is it completely accurate? Sure, learning to do something new can be quite the challenge. As humans, we have a number of habits and patterns of behavior—of course, there is a long-standing adage for that, too. As we become locked into these habits and routines, any deviation from the norm can add stress to all parties involved and lead to mistakes being made. As a result, people not only fear making mistakes but also fear the concept of ‘change’.   It should be noted that these difficulties in learning something new occur regardless of age or experience level. In the workplace, it is critical to continue to believe in employees and not give up on their ability to learn new skills an...

*formerly posted on "Welcome, International Students!" blog Two weeks ago, I was looking at my Facebook News Feed and reading what my friends and former classmates were sharing. One post caught my attention. It was a heartfelt article written by a colleague of mine at Xavier University. We were both Student Senators at Xavier and had spent several hours talking together about campus leadership and campus life. His article " A Stranger Called Me a 'Terrorist' and I Didn't React " is a good reminder about the difficulties and learning experiences that our world sees on a daily basis. I know that I have been in his shoes before, and it hurts. It hurts to not feel welcome. It hurts to be attacked without any regret by the attacking party. It hurts to be publicly shamed and embarrassed, especially without just cause. It reminded me of a time when I was at my friend's birthday party with my older brother and other friends. At this particular sports r...

In 2010, I wrote a couple of business articles on Suite101.com. Since then, the website has revamped its operations and shut down its previous operations. Therefore, I have decided to re-post these two articles here. They were: " Remember When Enron was Overpriced? " " Lessons Learned from CEO Chainsaw Al Dunlap " I also wrote sports articles on Suite101.com and Yahoo! Contributor Network that can be found on my sports blog CAVS.SPACE (formerly known as Hard Workin' Team).  I hope you enjoy these articles!

During my time as a graduate student at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), I had the opportunities to serve as a graduate assistant and as a class officer in the MBA program. As a part of both roles, I wrote on a couple blogs/websites, neither of which is currently active. However, I do have the rights to re-post all of my previous posts, so I have selected several of them and have added them to the "Motivated Innovation" blog. These blog posts can be found under the secondary labels " MBA Blog " (for writings from my graduate assistant role) and " MBASA Blog " (for writings from my class officer role). Feel free to browse through these posts. I hope you enjoy!

In September 2007, college professor Randy Pausch made a presentation at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a university lecture series. Pausch, who was dying of cancer, decided to give a presentation called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", which also became known as "The Last Lecture". The topics covered are ones that most, if not all, people think about at some point in their lives. There is a lot of discussion and introspection around personal passions and career & life goals. My favorite quotes from the presentation are: "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game." "Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things." I highly recommend watching "The Last Lecture" on YouTube . The video is a little over 75 minutes long, so, depending on your schedule, you may want to ...