Larry Johnson is one of the best motivational speakers in the world. A
few years ago he called his friend that owns a promotional business and
asked to have black tee shirts printed up with the following:
CRY ME A RIVER...
BUILD A BRIDGE...
GET OVER IT....
His friend thought that was a pretty unusual tee shirt but filled the
order. A couple of years later he was talking to Larry and he explained
the shirt. Larry married his high school sweetheart. They had been
married for many years and were on vacation. They loved to ride bikes
and were riding together when Larry got ahead of her descending a long
hill. He waited for her, but she didn't come down. A man in a truck
pulled up and asked him if he was riding with a woman with a white
helmet and purple clothes. He replied that he was and he told him to get
in the truck. His wife had hit a rock going down the hill and was badly
hurt; in fact she was now a quadriplegic. After the accident he drowned
in his sorrow for a year, and then finally decided to build a bridge and
get over it. Thus the idea for the tee shirt. He continues to love and
dote on his wife, his sweetheart, and is the only one that can
understand her when she talks and blinks her eyes.
All of us have hurts and pains from the trials in
life. But building a bridge and getting over it is the right thing to
do. One more thing that seals the deal is forgiveness. Jesus taught us
that as we forgive so shall we be forgiven, that is what brings healing.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
What is Holding you back?
What is holding you back? Challenging times offer opportunities for success. Can you imagine how difficult it was living in Tucson without air conditioning (or a swamp cooler) a hundred years ago? Dusty streets, boarded up buildings and oppressive summer heat faced the citizens of our community in the early nineteen hundreds. Tucson was mainly known as a place where tuberculosis sufferers would come for the dry heat.
But, amidst this despair there were many that saw opportunity in spite of the circumstances. You may not know about John Murphy, but you probably have heard of his partner Josias Joesler. They built the first shopping center in Tucson, Broadway Village, at Broadway and Country Club. Joesler was known for his eclectic Spanish colonial revival style and John Murphy was his patron. Many of the homes near the U of A built in the twenties and later homes in the foothills are Joesler designed homes. What I didn’t know was how John Murphy made his money. I knew that he owned most of the land in the foothills, but I didn’t know that he got that land by paying U of A students to homestead land in the foothills and then buying them out later. I am not sure about the legality of what he did, but it certainly was entrepreneurial. Charlie O’Dowd told me about his grandfather that owned the first title insurance company in Tucson back in the twenties. Folks didn’t see the value of title insurance so he went to the legislature and petitioned to make title insurance a requirement on selling property. This of course propelled his company forward and 40 years later he sold the company for 4.4 million dollars. An African Gazelle can leap 10 feet vertically and travel 30 feet horizontally but will not go over a 3 foot wall in a zoo because they can’t see where their feet will land. Fear keeps us from leaping over the wall to freedom. Like our early pioneers we have an opportunity to move forward with new ideas and innovation. Or we can wait for the zoo keeper to bring us our next meal.
But, amidst this despair there were many that saw opportunity in spite of the circumstances. You may not know about John Murphy, but you probably have heard of his partner Josias Joesler. They built the first shopping center in Tucson, Broadway Village, at Broadway and Country Club. Joesler was known for his eclectic Spanish colonial revival style and John Murphy was his patron. Many of the homes near the U of A built in the twenties and later homes in the foothills are Joesler designed homes. What I didn’t know was how John Murphy made his money. I knew that he owned most of the land in the foothills, but I didn’t know that he got that land by paying U of A students to homestead land in the foothills and then buying them out later. I am not sure about the legality of what he did, but it certainly was entrepreneurial. Charlie O’Dowd told me about his grandfather that owned the first title insurance company in Tucson back in the twenties. Folks didn’t see the value of title insurance so he went to the legislature and petitioned to make title insurance a requirement on selling property. This of course propelled his company forward and 40 years later he sold the company for 4.4 million dollars. An African Gazelle can leap 10 feet vertically and travel 30 feet horizontally but will not go over a 3 foot wall in a zoo because they can’t see where their feet will land. Fear keeps us from leaping over the wall to freedom. Like our early pioneers we have an opportunity to move forward with new ideas and innovation. Or we can wait for the zoo keeper to bring us our next meal.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Chart a Course for Tucson
I was asked by Vice Mayor Glassman to speak at the City Council study session about the changes that need to be made to make Tucson a business friendly city. The problem is that Tucson has grown without a plan or a vision. Our growth has occurred in spite of those opposing any growth. Because of that we have grown to our detriment. I told the council today that we need to:
1. Chart a course – that means having a vision for what we want to be and the kind of businesses we should be attracting to Tucson.
2. Change the code – our land development codes were called “Byzantine” and impossible to understand by the Clarion consulting group hired by the city. This report came out in 2008 and we have yet to cut the 1500 pages of code down to a reasonable 500 pages. The staff would then have a clear guideline on what is approved and council members would not need to interfere with the process.
3. Change the culture – when business people or land owners bring plans to developmental services they should be treated as a customer who is bringing revenue in to the city.
We are well behind other communities like Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and even El Paso in making these changes. I am glad that we have nearly 200,000 people that live in Tucson during the winter, but what does that really do for the economy? We need to attract people to Tucson that are bringing with them a company that will employ our kids and grandkids. When I talked about these ideas I could see that the council members want to do something, they just didn’t know what to do. In a tough economy those that make the necessary changes will survive and thrive. This is as true for cities as it is for business. Councilwoman Romero brought up the importance of education and the need to focus on it. I agree that it is important. We have a world class university in Tucson and a great community college. I think that our education system in Tucson from grade school to college is better than our competition. I don’t believe that is our problem, our problem is that as long as the revenues were coming in business people were ignored or worse demeaned. We have an opportunity to have some real change that we can believe in if we all take action now. The council has asked Ernie Duarte to work with the consultant (Clarion) to make the changes in the code that will make us competitive and streamline the process. They also were asking for a top to bottom assessment of city employees and to make the changes in the customer service culture in government. I didn’t hear anyone talk about creating a vision, this is something we need to encourage. All of us have a stake in what happens in our city. Unless we make the change now we will continue to see a decaying community. We will be known as the Detroit of the Desert instead of a shining city surrounded by hills.
1. Chart a course – that means having a vision for what we want to be and the kind of businesses we should be attracting to Tucson.
2. Change the code – our land development codes were called “Byzantine” and impossible to understand by the Clarion consulting group hired by the city. This report came out in 2008 and we have yet to cut the 1500 pages of code down to a reasonable 500 pages. The staff would then have a clear guideline on what is approved and council members would not need to interfere with the process.
3. Change the culture – when business people or land owners bring plans to developmental services they should be treated as a customer who is bringing revenue in to the city.
We are well behind other communities like Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and even El Paso in making these changes. I am glad that we have nearly 200,000 people that live in Tucson during the winter, but what does that really do for the economy? We need to attract people to Tucson that are bringing with them a company that will employ our kids and grandkids. When I talked about these ideas I could see that the council members want to do something, they just didn’t know what to do. In a tough economy those that make the necessary changes will survive and thrive. This is as true for cities as it is for business. Councilwoman Romero brought up the importance of education and the need to focus on it. I agree that it is important. We have a world class university in Tucson and a great community college. I think that our education system in Tucson from grade school to college is better than our competition. I don’t believe that is our problem, our problem is that as long as the revenues were coming in business people were ignored or worse demeaned. We have an opportunity to have some real change that we can believe in if we all take action now. The council has asked Ernie Duarte to work with the consultant (Clarion) to make the changes in the code that will make us competitive and streamline the process. They also were asking for a top to bottom assessment of city employees and to make the changes in the customer service culture in government. I didn’t hear anyone talk about creating a vision, this is something we need to encourage. All of us have a stake in what happens in our city. Unless we make the change now we will continue to see a decaying community. We will be known as the Detroit of the Desert instead of a shining city surrounded by hills.
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