This can apply to many things: sports, music, swimming, or even playing video games.    Let’s take one of my video driving games and my parents as an example.   I could explain in detail how it works, what the object is, go through all of the buttons on the controller and show them what each one does.   They nod their heads and agree they understand everything.

“Okay, we know how,” they say.  ”Let’s try it.”

I get the game set up for them to play a round.  They each have their controller.  The green light starts but Mom’s car isn’t moving.

“Tell me again which button is for the gas,” my mom says.  Even though I showed her what controls to use, until she actually did it for herself, just knowing wasn’t good enough.  Actually doing it for herself made all the difference.

This situation is just one example.  Most of us, especially kids, have probably had a similar situation at one time or another.   As kids, we think we know everything even if we’ve never done it before in our lives.  We think being told or shown how is good enough.  Then the surprise hits.  We actually try it for the first time and realize the difference between knowing how versus doing is huge.

What’s the point?  You can learn more from doing.

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In any part of life, either business or personal, wouldn’t you want to deal with honest people?   Some people feel it’s okay to bend the rules as far as they can without breaking the rules.  There are also those who think it’s okay to break the rules if it benefits them but not okay if it benefits others.  No matter how you look at the situation, it’s better to be honest with yourself and others.  You will get a lot farther in life.

So the next time you make a new friend or business contact, invite them to play golf.  You may learn a lot about them that you wouldn’t have known otherwise.

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Most people will probably answer “round peg” because the idea of being a square anything isn’t that appealing.  Why do you think people use the expression, “think outside the box?”  A box is square or rectangle and considered pretty limiting.  What if the saying were, “think outside the ball?”  Just doesn’t sound right, does it?  A square also has four points.  When you think of a point, you normally think of sharp things which can be dangerous.  A square also has four sides.  Since I’m still in school, when I think of sides, I think of team sports in PE. Depending on which side you’re on, it isn’t necessarily that much fun.  Apparently in the 1960’s, being called “square” meant you were the guys in suits, the people who worked at traditional companies, the ones that followed the rules.   I guess there were probably a lot of grown-ups that were considered “square.”

When you think of being square, there are a lot of negative meanings associated with it.

But being something round, without any sides or points seems pretty good.   A round peg can fit into a square hole but a square peg can’t fit into a round hole (of course given that the diameter of the circle isn’t bigger than the width of the square).   The round peg has more options.

Have you ever wondered why manhole covers are round, not square?   It’s because round covers won’t accidentally fall into the hole.  No matter how you hold it or tilt it, you can’t push it through the hole.  If it were square, it would be really easy to turn it diagonally and drop it through.  Wouldn’t you rather be a round cover than a square one?

Use whatever expression or saying you like for this situation.  When it comes right down to it, I think it’s better to be round than square.  To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be flexible and able to, as my grandpa says, “roll with it.”  You can’t roll if you’re a square peg.

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Most of us have to work hard, whether it’s starting a business, becoming a musician, athlete, or actor.  Pretty much anything you choose to do is going to take a lot of effort.

This is easy to say but that doesn’t mean I always like doing it.  Everyone, no matter what age you are, is going to get tired of work, work, and more work, especially if you can’t see the reward right away.  That’s why everyone, but especially a kid, needs someone to support and encourage them when they want to quit.  And that will happen at some point.  That’s where a parent or other mentor really helps.  Maybe it’s their age or their experience but somehow my parents can see the possibilities and opportunities much farther down the road than I can.  But I keep learning as I go.

Success won’t happen overnight.  The only guarantee is that if you quit, nothing will happen.

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Contests are one way to get some free advertising.   You would be surprised at how many people skip by this option for various reasons.    One of the reasons is that there are usually a lot of details to follow in order to qualify and many people just don’t want to spend the time to enter.  Another reason someone, especially a kid, may not enter is because of age restrictions.  But sometimes you have to ignore that rule and still submit your application WITH an explanation of why you’re entering even though you may be under age.

This has happened with me a lot but I don’t let that stop me.  Depending on who is sponsoring the contest and what the specific rules are is how I handle the entry form.  Sometimes I try to contact them ahead of time and ask permission to enter explaining why I think I should be allowed to.  Sometimes I just send in my entry form with the explanation attached.  Believe it or not, I haven’t been turned down yet.  And if I do get a “no”, it’s not a big deal.  There are always other contests.

The very first contest I entered was sponsored by the Young Entrepreneurs of America.  The rules clearly said you had to be 16.  I was only 11 at the time but I had had my business for about a year and a half by then.  I figured that I could go up against anyone over 16 and have just as much of a chance to win as they did.  The prize was being named “Young Entrepreneur of the Year.”  I knew if I won, that would give me some really good national recognition, especially because I was so young.

So I entered.  I filled out all the forms exactly as requested but in my essay, I explained and justified why I felt they should consider me.   The worst they could say was “no.”  After a few months, I got a big surprise.  Not only did they consider my entry but they said the judges were so impressed that they created a whole new category for kids under 16 and I was their first recipient.

There wasn’t any money attached to it, no prize, no trophy, and not even a certificate.  But the national recognition from them and what would follow was worth more than any piece of paper or statue.   Less than a year later, we got an email from Forbes saying they wanted to include me in their first Top 10 List for role models 18 & under.   They said they found me because of my Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

I’m not saying it’s easy to find contests of any sort for young entrepreneurs so sometimes you have to think outside the box.  Just this year, I found out about a contest sponsored by Intuit.  I was way too young according to the rules but I found a person to email and actually got written permission back to enter anyway.  I didn’t care if they even put me in the actual contest because they said they would at least post my information on their website which gave me a lot of exposure.

When I was a contestant on NBC’s game show ‘1 vs 100′ for their all-kid episode, I lost on the second question.  I got teased and people actually sent me nasty emails about it but the 2 minutes or so that the host, Bob Saget, talked to me on camera about my Pencil Bugs business was worth more in the long run than what the remaining kids finally won.

I also entered a contest from Kohl’s department store.  Not only did I win a college scholarship but my picture was on a huge poster in our regional stores which was pretty cool.

Free advertising?  Absolutely.  Can you afford to pay for advertising like this?  Probably not.   Remember, contests are just one way to get more exposure for your business.  It’s always worth the effort even if you don’t win.

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One of my aunts has lots of friends (military and civilian) who like to share different emails with her.  She then sends them to my mom.  I couldn’t help wonder if anyone forwarded this to the White House.

Click the link below to read . . .

Letter to President Obama

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Take for instance RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome).  I think the drug companies give common problems a name just so they can justify and sell their drugs.  My grandparents are 76 and 85 and still do all the work themselves on their ranch.   Grandpa’s solution for someone with RLS is to get out there and do something like walking around or exercising in some way.  It makes sense that if you just sit or lie around all day that your muscles won’t work as well.  It doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out.

There are lots of drugs that companies are making for different problems.  But have you really listened to one of those commercials?   Just the other day I saw a commercial for a drug called Chantix which is supposed to help people quit smoking.  Quitting smoking is a good thing so everyone should try the best they can, anyway they can . . . but.   As I was watching the commercial where an old guy was talking about how it helped him, the narrator started telling all the side effects the drug could cause.  The commercial seemed to go on a lot longer than most 30-second commercials so I decided to rewind the DVR and time it.  Here is the unbelievable part.

The advertising FOR the drug lasted just 40 seconds and the warnings AGAINST the drug went on for 110 seconds.  It was a 2 1/2 minute commercial.  Those aren’t cheap and the fact that the warnings took longer than the advertisement should make people who might be considering this drug to reconsider.

All drug commercials have warnings about possible side effects but I’d worry when they say taking the drug could cause you to think about suicide but stopping the drug could also make you think about suicide.  Geez! You’re taking a huge risk either way.  I wonder how the FDA can even allow companies to make drugs that could make people think about suicide.  That doesn’t make any sense to me.

My grandpa quit smoking about 30 years ago.  He didn’t use any drugs and wouldn’t have anyway even if they would have been around back then.  He just quit ‘cold turkey’ as he says.

Anyone can do anything they choose if they just set their mind to it.   You don’t need dangerous drugs to do it either.  Of course what do I know?  I’m still 13 and my worst habit is wanting to play video games too much.

From this kid’s point of view, I’m just saying, maybe it’s better to rely on your own will power than to depend on some drug that some company says will work but the side effects could make you worse off than before.

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I’m not even going to say the kid’s name because I don’t want to give him anymore credit for doing a really stupid thing.  Giving a 7-year-old kid attention on TV and in the papers because he stole his mom’s car and took it for a “joy ride” is a bad idea.

On Fox News with his ENTIRE family, the kid said he took the car because he didn’t want to go to church.   On the Today Show, the dad said if a “cotton candy, all American kid like _______ [could do this], it could happen to anybody.”   I don’t think so.   When asked what his punishment was, the kid said, “grounded for four days.”   By the time this kid made it on the Ellen Show, the parents got so much grief from people for the short punishment that the dad said the kid was now grounded for a month.  A MONTH?  Are they for real?   A kid steals a car, gets chased by the police, runs from the police and all he gets is grounded for a month? Totally dumb! Several of the comments I read suggested that the parents should be punished.

I actually only saw the Ellen episode last Friday but as I was writing this post, I wondered if other shows had him on also.  It didn’t take much effort to find other major shows made a bad decision to have him on too.   But Ellen made a worse decision.  At the end of the interview, she jokingly gave the dad a steering wheel lock and said maybe it would help keep the kid from taking the car again.  But it got worse.  Even though she told the kid that what he did was bad, the show still gave him a kid-size motorized Cadillac car!  How dumb was that?!!  So what does that tell other kids, “Hey, I can do something criminal, get famous on TV, AND get a cool toy?”

It really bugged me that the kid looked like he was proud of himself as he waved and danced walking on Ellen’s stage.   And on every show, they (the family and the host) were all laughing about it while saying it wasn’t a laughing situation.  Then don’t laugh!  It was plain stupid!

When there are hundreds of kids out there who ARE good role models for lots of different reasons, why doesn’t the media focus on them?

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When I was in first grade, my teacher asked us to make a picture of some land and sky.  From what I remember, we were free to draw and color pretty much any way we felt.  While most of the other kids used color crayons, I picked magic markers.  I wanted my picture to be really bold.   I don’t remember exactly how I did the ground area but the sky is a vivid memory because of my teacher’s reaction in front of the whole class.

She took one look at my picture and said, “What did you do?  That’s not how the sky looks!  That is sloppy work!”  That’s all it took and I began to cry.  Yes, if you read Part 1 of this blog post, you’ll see another teacher made me cry.  It wasn’t like I did something to get in trouble.  Both of the teachers squashed my creativeness. 

Well, since I thought my dark blue, light blue, and purple sky looked just like some stormy skies I had seen, something came over me and I told her I thought my picture was just right.  Apparently she didn’t like me standing up for myself and took it as being disrespectful.  (Keep in mind, I was only 7 years old and I can’t believe I actually even said anything when most of the time I was like a mouse.)  However, by the end of the day, the teacher had called my parents and told them she needed to speak with them about my “behavior.”

Thank goodness, Mom and Dad, always supported my creativeness and stuck up for my choice to color my picture the way I did.

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I was in kindergarten.  I think we were having “career day” for whatever that was worth at that age.  Parents were invited and Mom came as always but Dad had to work.  The teacher went around the room asking each kid what they wanted to be when they grew up. Normal question, right?  Lots of people have asked me the same thing since then.

Most kids answered the typical jobs and the teacher responded with a “great” or “that’s a good job” or some other positive comment.  When it was my turn to answer, I proudly said, “I want to be everything!”

Immediately, the teacher said, “You can’t be everything.  You can only do one thing.  Just pick one.”

After a few rounds of “Yes I can,” and “No you can’t,” I burst into tears and ran to my mom sitting in the back of the room.  I honestly didn’t know what Mom thought then but apparently she was shocked at the teacher’s negative comment.  Mom knew I had big plans, whatever those were, so she thought my answer made perfect sense.

My teacher happened to be pretty old and was close to retirement.  Being a teacher all of her life, maybe she never had any other goals or things she wanted to do.  I guess lots of people in her time chose one job and stuck with it their whole life.  But telling me that I could only be one thing (especially in front of my whole class) didn’t set well with me, even at five years old.  I knew better. I could be anything I wanted to be or even try a lot of different things.

Note to teachers, parents, and other adults: Don’t tell a kid they are limited in what they can do or what they can be.

Note to self: Keep believing that I can do anything as long as I keep trying and remember to ignore the negative comments of others.

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