I can barely wait to push forward in sharing more about how impactful serving as bouncer for my friend’s sister was as well as how my working relationship developed with the maintenance supervisor who walked by my machine a few times each day. We’re not quite ready for that yet, though. First, we ne...

Even at fifteen years old and riding a bicycle to the job sites each day, showing up on time consistently and giving it everything I was capable of - even when I wasn’t capable of all that much - helped me earn moderate respect from the men I was trying to keep up with. Carrying that same work ethic...

Working from 3:30p to 1:40a, at least Monday through Thursday with frequent Fridays and Saturdays scheduled for mandatory overtime, for most of my first two years in manufacturing was clearly part of God’s plan; I certainly wasn’t doing much planning of my own and that point. Any planning I had a ha...

Knowing that I had so much untapped potential academically stung a bit, even if that was only subconsciously at the time. If I was doing anything back then to intentionally grow just the slightest seed, it was through my role in the workforce. I produced solid results and had some great opportunitie...

My senior year of high school was a whirlwind. While I did the bare minimums to skate through my required classes, I was working as hard as I knew how in what turned into a full time job before I even graduated and dove in head first to every other kind of shenanigan I could find as soon as I clocke...

Just so it’s fresh in our minds, let’s revisit Napoleon Hill’s quote from Think and Grow Rich that serves as the foundation for all we’ll be working through moving forward: “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Nearly three and a h...

One of my earliest memories of the behavior-based safety concept was hearing Terry Ward say that no one wakes up in the morning and decides they’re going to lose a body part in an industrial accident later that day. But because of at-risk behaviors, often behaviors they’ve practiced for years withou...

Through the midpoint of my freshman year in high school, I remember very few report cards that so much as a C - and I don’t think I ever got anything lower. While I never did a ton of studying, I did carry books home as needed and completed homework assignments. When the second semester of my freshm...

Before I go on, I need to be very transparent with you. As I began noodling around the idea of listing and sharing leadership lessons I’ve learned through my adversities, I was more than a little conflicted; I’m nothing special and I’ve certainly seen people face far more difficult circumstances tha...

In June of 2000, I was only about a month into my new role facilitating (I’m intentionally not calling it leading and you’ll see why shortly) the 5S implementation across 200,000 square feet of the facility I worked in. In case you’re familiar with the idea, Sorting everything in a work area, Settin...

I’ve often heard the phrase, “Experience is the best teacher.” While I believe that can be correct, I’ve learned that far too many people refuse to evaluate their experiences, completely missing out on some of life’s most crucial lessons. In all the years we’ve studied John Maxwell, I’ve often heard...

I (Cindy) don’t know a successful person that hasn’t learned from their losses in order to come back better than before.

It took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to perfect the light bulb.  Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job for lacking creativity.  Michael Jordan was cut from his high school ...