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I just finished reading the book Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk.  As a business person and someone who has spent a considerable amount of time reading about passion and connecting passion with your “work,” I found this book to be great.

“Crush It” is all about taking what you are passionate about and can talk about longer and more deeply than anyone else and building a personal brand and business around it.  Most people think that work is something that is supposed to be loathed and hated while their hobbies and the fun things in life are just for the weekend or for time off.  Now, I won’t go on and say that I have found the perfect job or career for myself or that I love everything that I do  every day, but I don’t hold out the misconception in my mind that I have to hate work and love my play.

Another thing that Gary stresses in the book is the balance and prioritization of family time with your work.  He says that he weighs every decision in terms of currency and legacy.  That means a business deal doesn’t make sense just because it is going to yield a lot of money.  It must be something that can be done with integrity that will allow you to leave a positive legacy your family can be proud of.  Oh yeah, that also means that your work cannot take up all of your time either – you have to have time for your family to cultivate that family legacy.

I really enjoyed the book and crushed it in a just a couple of days reading.  Here are some of the quotes I highlighted in my Kindle while I read:

• I knew from my experience with the baseball card business that people want to be told what’s good and valuable, and that they enjoy feeling like they’ve been turned on to something not everyone can appreciate.

• Nothing in life ever goes exactly the way you think it will, and that goes for all of your carefully planned entrepreneurial dreams and goals.

• everyone needs to start thinking of themselves as a brand

• I want my kids and my grandkids and great-grandkids to be proud of me. This is why every decision I make is weighed in terms of currency and legacy.

• Making connections, creating and continuing meaningful interaction with other people, whether in person or in the digital domain, is the only reason we’re here. Remember that, set the tone, and build legacy.

• true success—financial, personal, and professional—lies above all in loving your family, working hard, and living your passion.

The links in this book review are links to purchase the book/Kindle through my Amazon affiliate link.

Well, I can’t believe it is already Thanksgiving.  That means Christmas is right around the corner.  I want to thank you for checking out TrippAtkins.com this year and I want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.  This is one of my favorite times of the year (not because of the food, because I would prefer a pepperoni pizza) but because of the time I get to spend at home with family.

I have so much to be Thankful for this year: a happy, healthy two-year-old son, a beautiful wife, we are both employed and even through a lay-off have not been significantly impacted by the poor U.S. economy, we helped family members start businesses this year, and we have a loving, serving church family. We faced some trials in 2009, but God was faithful and brought us through them.

2010 is shaping up to be a great year, but right now we are so thankful for what came our way in 2009.

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
- 1 Thessolonians 5: 18

“Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave along with you.”

- Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

I just finished reading 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One: Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence by Shawn Wood.  I love reading about finding your calling and purpose in life and this book was another book of that flavor.  One thing that I really enjoyed was Shawn’s take on how all of the seemingly small and insignificant things we do in our lives that we don’t think anyone notices as Huram did as he hammered out the 200 pomegranates on top of the 34 feet tall pillars at the entrance to the temple (1 Kings 6) are a part of our calling and when we do them with excellence they bring glory to God and we fulfill our calling.

Here are some of my highlights and notes from the book:

• In the story of Huram and his two hundred pomegranates we find the artist’s mandate-five essential components of life-artistry: • Get great at something • Do something with that talent • Invest yourself in things that will last and that others will benefit from • Work for an audience of one, because sometimes our best work is seen only by God • Finish what you start.

• An artist is someone-anyone-who creates and cultivates.

• But in order to get great at something, it seems that God intends for us to build upon the foundation of skills and wisdom that he has given us, and not just daydream of skills and talents that we wish we had.

• God desires that we be known not for what we are demolishing, but for what we are building.

• A decision has to be made to be great. You cannot be great at everything, but you have to be great at something. God made you for that purpose.

• “You are great when you serve”

I’m staring a new post series this week called “Stuff I Like” that will be a collection of links, videos, or pretty much anything else that I came across this week that might be of interest to you.

One of my favorite professional athletes is NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.  Mainly because he’s helped my fantasy football team dominate over the last 6 or 7 years.  We see him in commercials and all over the place, but I came across a pretty awesome video this week that shows just how much influence he carries.

Our family lives and works in Greenville, South Carolina so we are proud to here that Greenville was selected as the 2nd best place to live for a “simple life.”  Check out the video here.

Read a great post at TonyMorganLive this week about web or print advertising.  Now Tony is a pastor and church consultant, but the message of this post is true for churches and attorneys alike.  He lives in Anderson and met with a real estate agent about selling his house.  The real estate agent basically told him that print advertising doesn’t work in Anderson and only the web advertising caused the buyers to turn out.  As an attorney, I am in an industry that really doesn’t want things to change.  There are still attorneys who don’t check their own e-mail.  Rather, they dictate e-mails to be sent out and have all e-mails sent to them printed and put on their desk like regular mail.  Advertising is the same way.  Most attorneys rely on the Yellow Pages and other forms of print advertising and simply put up a brochure website as their “online presence.”

It’s a big day today at the Atkins’ house.  Our little guy is celebrating his second birthday day today.  I can’t believe where the time goes and how fast the first two years of his life have passed us by.  The speed that he is learning new things and his little personality and sense of humor put a smile on our faces every day.  This time two years ago I could not imagine how his life would change ours.

We saw so much growth and change over the last year.  He was barely walking at his first birthday and now he is hitting rocket shots off of his baseball tee and I think he might be the next Tiger Woods judging by the way he can hit a golf ball.  While he is already quite the athlete and loves to spend time at the ball park, he also loves tractors (especially when his Papa drives him around) and getting outside to play and run.  But you can see from the picture that his first true love are the Tigers!

So, Cole, I hope you have an awesome birthday today.  I’m looking forward to our fun night tonight at dinner and playing with your new toys and reading the new books Mommy and I bought you.  I’m so proud of you already!

We love you!

I just wrapped up the book, Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different by Tullian Tchividjian.  I really enjoyed the book.  It gives a great discussion of how Christians are to be “in the world but not of the world” as Jesus prayed in John 17. I really enjoyed the book and have a new appreciation for my home church and the wide variety of backgrounds and the several generations represented there.

Here are some of my notes and highlights from the book:

•    Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don’t make a difference by being the same.
•    Color blindness is the apt metaphor for some: They miss the rich-hued splendor of the spiritual vision of life and see only the colder, duller world of black and white. —OS GUINNESS
•    eternal, and “what is seen” replaces what is unseen (Hebrews 11:3).
•    consider how air conditioning forced people off of their front porches where they would gather and talk together into the cool seclusion of their air conditioned homes.
•    In this windowless world, God, transcendence, and mystery have become less and less imaginable. All of life is “rationalized.”
•    become less and less imaginable. All of life is “rationalized.” (because of technology)
•    Our generation is crying out for something different, something higher, something beyond this world.
•    People in today’s world are desperately reaching, not just upward, but backward. They yearn for a day gone by when things seemed more constant and less shallow.
•    To be truly relevant, you have to say things that are unfashionably eternal, not trendy.
•    Back in the 1950s, when my grandfather was becoming a well-known preacher of the gospel, a famous actor pulled him aside and said, “Billy, don’t ever try to compete with Hollywood, because Hollywood will always do it better than you. You give the world the one thing Hollywood can’t—the straightforward, timeless truth of the gospel.” For more than sixty years, that’s exactly what he did.
•    Even if we start out strong—on fire for God after a profound conversion experience—we’ll quickly lose steam if we don’t have a compelling vision fueling us to press on and strain forward against all opposition.c9cdea9B001NLKYH4
•    As Richard John Neuhaus observes, “Christianity in America is not challenging the ‘habits of the heart’ and ‘habits of the mind’ that dominate American culture.”
•    God has called Christians to play a role by celebrating what’s good and true and beautiful, working for change in what isn’t, and looking forward in hope to God’s redemption of all things.c9cdea9B001NLKYH4
•    When we operate according to the idea “If we build it, they will come,” we fail to take into account this distinct nature of new covenant ministry and mission. Instead we’re called to operate with this mind-set: “God is building; therefore we should go.”
•    In becoming Christians we don’t need to retreat from the vocational calling we already have. Nor do we need to justify that calling, whatever it is, in terms of its spiritual value or evangelistic usefulness. We simply exercise whatever our calling is with new God-glorifying motives, goals, and standards—and with a renewed commitment to performing our calling with greater excellence and higher objectives.c9cdea9B001NLKYH4Note: in my job as a divorce attorney it is hard because i know God hatesthings that cause sin and harm the institutions he set up such as marriage but i think he intends for christians to help thosein need. a parallel example would be that God hates poverty or starvation but not those that help people who are hungry or poor.
•    The only way to know him deeply is to have many different types of Christian people in your life, since each person will help to reveal a part of God that you can’t see by yourself.
•    all of us need other lights than our own to see more of his myriad facets.
•    real encouragement is the verbal affirmation of someone’s strength, giftedness, or accomplishment, along with the realization that God the Creator is the ultimate source behind whatever’s being affirmed.

I just finished reading Shane Hipps, Flickering Pixels: How Using Technology Shapes Your Faith.  As a geeky guy, I love technology, flat panel TVs, computers, the internet, my iPhone – pretty much anything that plugs in.  While Shane is not critical of technology per se, he is critical of the adage that the medium is neutral.  I would have to agree with him that the medium does send a message apart from the message itself.  I had just never thought of many of the things he discussed as “media.”  While I didn’t agree with every premise, It was definitely a very thought-provoking read and I would recommend it.

Here are a few of my highlights and notes from the book:

• Media and technology are kind of like Stretch Armstrong: They extend our reach—our words, sounds, images, and even our selves—beyond our normal limits.
• a medium is anything that stretches, extends, or amplifies some human capacity.1
• When we fail to perceive that the things we create are extensions of ourselves, the created things take on god-like characteristics and we become their servants.2Note: refer to greek myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his own image in the water. His falure to understand the medium of a water mirror gave the medium extraordinary power …even power to destroy him.
• This conversation initiated a crisis of faith for me. I began to realize that I had all the answers to the questions no one was asking.
• As McLuhan once observed, “We shape our tools and afterward our tools shape us.”
• Information alone is strength without coordination. We become a danger mostly to ourselves when we have it. Understanding is the ability to coordinate that raw information in meaningful ways. Understanding creates a certain enthusiasm. We can direct our knowledge toward potentially useful ends—but we may also be a danger to others. Wisdom, however, is knowing how, when, and why we use our understanding; wisdom is settling into our understanding without being too enamored by it.
• If we are not alert, the Information Age may stunt our growth and create a permanent puberty of the mind.
• If a picture is worth a thousand words, then images must communicate information more efficiently than words.
• it’s the medium, not the content, that changes us.
• Images give and take away.
• Instead, our beliefs are judged by their fruit—how they change the world while we’re here.
• Direct service to people around us heals our feelings of helplessness and apathy. It is quite possible that the needs in some far-off place are greater. But you aren’t there. You’re here, and there are needs galore in your own backyard. We do what we can, where we are, and watch the world change life by life.
• That intimacy is preserved in that relationship as long as the information remains exclusive. The moment it is available to anyone and everyone is the moment intimacy begins to evaporate.Note: in contrast to Facebook where 400 of your closest friends find out verything at the same time
• In a virtual community, our contacts involve very little real risk and demand even less of us personally.
• Authentic community involves high degrees of intimacy, permanence, and proximity.1
• there is a big difference between being “in touch” and truly connecting with others.
• Reconciliation comes in the context of clear communication, meaningful listening, shared understandings, civility, openness, and a lot of patience.
• The most effective method of conflict resolution always establishes clear rules and boundaries on process long before the content of a dispute is ever discussed. The process is almost always designed to help people gain distance from intense emotions, usually through structured listening and sharing, controlled feedback, and language coaching. When done well, the process will serve to de-escalate emotional tensions long enough to make space for rational dialogue, which greatly increases the chances of resolution. This is another way of saying that the medium is the message. The very way we disagree sends a message, and that process determines the outcome as much or more than the content of our disagreement.
• How we disagree matters more than what we disagree about.
• There is an elastic relationship between access to information and power. In the simplest terms, power is derived from information control. Whenever people have exclusive access to information, they are granted a certain degree of authority, which is why doctors, lawyers, and mechanics receive such deference.
• when Jesus says the Spirit will teach you “all things” that means there is more to come, more that Jesus didn’t say, more insights, expanded knowledge, deeper realities. Jesus is pointing us to a God who keeps communicating an ever-evolving message. That is why the Spirit is given.
• Second, when Jesus says the Spirit will “remind you of everything I have said to you” it means what Jesus said back then is still valid.
• Certainty can be a great friend of arrogance.
• Daring humility shuns boredom, complacency, and endless arguments. Daring humility is honest enough to admit that we see things in a mirror dimly, and bold enough to live a life of deep conviction anyway.
• Jesus is God’s perfect medium—and the medium is the message.
• The church is God’s medium and message.
• Instead of simply resisting or caving in to cultural forces, we are invited to study and understand them. Only then will we learn to use them rather than be used by them.

A group blogging project is going on discussing Flickering Pixels at Church Crunch by John Saddington and a whole host of other bloggers.  Here is a link to the review of the first chapter over a Church Crunch.

Convenience is hugely attractive in organizations because it is easy to defend and easy to approve…The problem is that convenient approaches rarely break through or generate extraordinary returns.

- Seth Godin

How has your business or ministry been handicapped by convenience?  As Seth points out, extraordinary returns do not come from taking the convenient approach.  The “bird in the hand is greater than two in the bush” mentality is safe and may be good, but it won’t lead to greatness.  If you always accept what you have in your grasp you will never realize greatness.  In my practice, I have several things that are safe.  I know I can generate a certain level of business each month just by doing a few things.  The problem with that is my time is tied up and I convince myself that things are good.  Before the ideal practice will show up, I may have to jump off the safe road.

What can you do to avaoid ordinary results and move toward extraordinary?

“Our call as lawyers is to minister God’s truth, beauty, goodness, justice, mercy, compassion, or love wherever it is lacking, whether it be in our law office, our law school, the county courthouse, the adversary system, our client’s family, our partner’s life, or at the coffee shop”

- Michael P. Schutt in Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession