My main man Rick pointed out this “Triumph & Disaster” line in Rudyard Kipling’s “IF” poem years ago and it has always stuck with me. It gets at the question of “who you are vs. what you do” and after years of considering it, I still confuse the two.

I ask for quite a bit of vulnerability in others so if I can pay forward a little of my own here, it’s that I have a really hard time not putting my self-worth into what I do. I know the problem with this. I see it in many of the creators and achievers that I work with. If you bank the value of your existence on how well your next endeavor goes, what happens to your sense of self when things don’t work out?

You aren’t what you do. You are who you are. You’ll win and you’ll lose… but those outcomes are imposters. Your character is what counts. What do you value? How do you treat others? What do you believe in? Successes and failures aside, who are you?

That said, I’ll surely mention some notable “Triumphs” (& “Disasters”)…recent ones circle around storytelling & mentorship (see “PROJECTS”).

Past ones include:

• flying airplanes ✈️👨‍✈️,

• graduating U of U 📚🎓,

• app dev & designing 🤓👨‍🎨,

• skiing around the world ⛷️🌎,

• shattering pelvis (epic fail) 😵🏥,

• marrying Canadian (epic win) 💒 🇨🇦,

• and one of the favorite successful failures from my early 20’s… the (now “dead”) boutique board biz… 🛹☠️