The easiest way to feel good about yourself is by tearing others down and discouraging them. Unfortunately, the buzz from that doesn’t last too long. If you’ve been on the internet any amount of time, you’ve seen the people who do this. They leave a discouraging or hateful comment on a blog post or YouTube…
There are three types of people you should never listen to. You should never seek their council because it will be worthless. People who have never taken a big risk on their dream. People who have never failed. People who have failed once but are afraid to fail again. These people will kill your dreams…
My parents were missionaries in Guatemala when I was a younger. From the age of six to twelve, I was a white kid running around trying to figure out Spanish. The craziest thing about being a missionary kid in Guatemala at that time, though, was that the country was in a massive civil war. There…
One of the more difficult things for me this last week was seeing people I worked with during Echo. (Not my co-workers, but those who either attended or supported the conference.) For instance, on Wednesday, I worked from Watermark Church – the church that hosted the conference. As I sat with my hand to my…
I apologize in advance that many of my posts over the next few days will be about my time with Echo. It was a huge part of my life and I poured everything I had into it. For the last seven months of my life almost all of my attention and passion was directed at…
Last week, Rob and Jeff called me into their office and, with heavy hearts, let me know they needed me to step down from my position. So I’m no longer the director of Echo. The news came somewhat as a shock, because Echo went phenomenally well. It was the largest yet and we’d received some…
There I was in my tube, floating down the river. It was relaxing, but I was starting to get bored. So was my new friend. Wouldn’t you know it, around that time, we floated under a train bridge. “Wouldn’t it be awesome to jump off that bridge into the river below?” Great idea! And my…
I wish I could say every cool experience in my life was a result of good planning. But most of the things I experience are a result of fortunate proximity at the right time. My family was on a vacation to England. That was a cool experience in and of itself. But after leaving a…
I was a scrawny white kid. Not much has changed since childhood. But I was never whiter or scrawnier than when I went to my first rap concert. At the age of ten I was intrigued by hip hop culture. I thought the relationship between swagger and the bagginess of my clothes was directly related.…
I was talking to a friend the other day who has the desire to speak publicly. He’s an amazing graphic designer, and people actually ask him to speak from time to time at their conferences. He enjoys it, but he also feels like he’s going to throw up before and after he speaks. He’s terrified.…