President's Message - Oct. 25, 2013

I will be out this week attending a continuing education class Thursday and Friday so my mind has been more on business than Rotary this week.  I came across two very powerful quotes regarding businesses and life as well as in my mind the mission of Rotary. 
 
The first is one I saved from Tony Robbins back in the day when he said, “People who succeed have momentum.  The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed.  Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can become a self fulfilling prophecy.”  I re-read this to remind me to keep moving.  Don’t get comfortable or complacent.  Spend part of the time working on what you are going to work on next but keep moving.
 
The second one I have was from the late Steve Jobs.  It sounded more like a toast than a quote but I always felt like it was an eye opener because its pretty commonplace to look to the senior guy in the office or the oldest member of the club for guidance and support.  The reality is the largest economic boom in our lifetime, the micro chip, came from some very young (not so senior) guys.
 
“Here’s to the crazy ones.  The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.  The round peg in the square holes.  The ones who see things differently.  They are not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.  You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.  About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things.  They push the human race forward and while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius.  Because the people, who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” 
 
Let’s embrace new ideas as a club and let’s always keep our foot on the gas and our mission moving forward.  There is no doubt plenty of support in the club to allow us to do just that.  You are in the capable hands of PE Karen Nolan this Friday and I look forward to seeing you all next week.
 
Yours in Rotary,
 
Dan
 
 
“Do not argue with an idiot.  He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”