In this podcast, In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses his experience in his first job out of college.

If you can be good at one thing, you can be good at anything. Leadership has always fascinated me, but more precisely, people who always seem to successfully lead organizations and teams are the most intriguing.

I sat, pondering both the murky nature of the grey slush on the floor and my own murky future as my university applications sat on an admission officer’s desk somewhere. Then I took an elbow to the face.

The picture above is of the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida. Notable because I took the picture, dropped my phone, shirt and shoes, and just jumped right into it at that exact spot. Also notable because I can’t really swim.

A thoughtful quote from author and motivational speaker Esther Hicks.

Dr. Sam Harris believes that free will is an illusion—that we are merely a collection of our DNA and every life experience we have been aggregating, leading us to every decision or action we have ever made and ever will make. I tremendously believe, to my core, that we have a strong say in our destiny, and I would fervently defend this belief.

When we are born, there are an almost infinite number of pathways our lives can take. From our very first breath, every little permutation of a decision or interaction changes the road we are on and direction we are heading.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I wanted to take a second to share something. About a month ago, I wrote down 5 principles by which I would like to live every day and hold myself accountable to.

This is a different sort of post — it’s on starting and running a business or firm. More specifically, it’s also on the 200 or so times someone with a business idea has asked me to invest in their idea and why I have said “no” every single time.

Be the best version of yourself, of course, but be your best self only for yourself.

When I care deeply, I am at my best—be it about people, my work, or what I enjoy (like running) in my personal life. Things only get muddled when I let others dictate what it is that should matter to me.

From guest blogger Nikki Laubenstein. You will find yourself in humiliating situations, where your best wasn’t on display, or you are wishing for a do-over. Own it, and instead, change your mind about how you will react if your first instinct is to crawl under a desk and hide.

It took me five years to graduate Vanderbilt, including two summer school sessions, and my grades were mediocre at best. But in the back of my mind, I always knew I was going to make something of myself. Partly because I knew I had drive about things I was passionate about, and partly because failure motivated me to push harder.

Despite the title, and the introduction, this isn’t a blog on death. In fact — it is the exact opposite; it is on living life. It’s just that (as I podcasted a bit on here) we often have to experience a low to learn about our highs.

Life is difficult. 

I read that introductory sentence from Dr.  M. Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Traveled” when I was in my 20s. It sunk in, or that is to say, it sounded meaningful, potentially even true. But I couldn’t relate to it, and after two pages I set the book down and never picked it back up. 

I recalled a distant but not entirely forgotten memory while running the other day. It dates back to my first ever homework assignment during my first week of 1st grade, which was a writing assignment.

Focus is living in the immediate. That is all there is to it; there is no complex definition. This trait rings true for almost all highly successful people—they have the ability to stay on focus. But what is focus, and how can it help you?