Affluent Student

I wrote a post recently about the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast. In that post I mentioned ways to make the event more productive and useful to the attendee. After all, the point behind learning something new is to apply it to your life.

Ever set out to do something then find you’ve worked your way into a corner? That’s where I am right now.

I put out a goal/resolution earlier this year to publish seven books by year’s end. Today is the last day of February and I haven’t published one. What happened?

I had an experience last week that I wanted to share with my readers. I am not sure whether I reacted properly in a given situation, so I’ll begin by telling you my story. It has to do with giving feedback and criticism to others.

It is very easy to find fault in others, to “Monday-morning quarterback” or to offer unsolicited advice. We can pick up what someone else should have said and done and come up with half a dozen different ways that they can get better. And sometimes, we even make it our own personal mission or project to fix someone else. But do we stop and consider ourselves before we step in and lend a hand?

After last year’s BCS Championship Game, I wrote a blog post giving ten reasons that Alabama won. Here we are, a year later, and Alabama has repeated as champions for the 2012 season. Their 42-14 victory over Notre Dame at Sun Life Stadium was a lopsided affair. Alabama sprinted out to a 28-0 halftime lead which saw Notre Dame playing uninspired football.

When asked by the on-field reporter going into the locker room what fixes they would have to do in the second half, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly’s remarks caught me completely off-guard.

I played a game years ago in the early days of computers called Lemmings. My guess is that many of you have at least heard of it, and probably played too. The object of the game is to save as many of these little green creatures as you can at each level. You save them by navigating them through a series of obstacles and hazards to the goal for that level.

These guys follow one behind the other, marching right in step behind the guy in front of him. In short, if you save the one at the front of the line, you save them all. But if they begin to die or fall off the cliff, those in the back of the line are doomed to the same fate if you can’t rescue them.

Sound familiar?

Happy 2013! Here are my resolutions/goals for the new year. What are yours?

At this time of the year, many of us are asking this question. What gift should you give? After all, the choices are almost endless. It can be overwhelming to choose the right gift.

In the United States, we’re so focused on things as gifts. Just look at Black Friday – reports from this past weekend say that we’re on track for a record holiday season in 2012. And it continues with Cyber Monday and all sorts of opportunities to acquire more things. Sometimes these become gifts to others, sometimes gifts to ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong – I do like things. My wife and I are both that way. She likes to be surprised, as do I. Whatever that gift is…