Shultz Photography Blog

Success

I thought of a quote today that has been branded into my mind from a great friend, Kevin Elliott. This quote is at the bottom of every email he sends as part of his signature. Not sure who stated it originally, but it's worth taking 15 minutes (or more) today to think about it...

"I don't fear failure. I do fear being successful at things that don't matter."

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the pops out there! My Sunday school class (a bunch of high schoolers) shared some great insights this morning on what makes a great dad. We talked about what we've learned from our dads, etc. I've learned a lot about generosity from my pop. What have you learned from your dad?

Here's some quotes about dads:

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.” Charles Wadsworth

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
Theodore Hesburgh

“If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.”
Bill Cosby

“My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”
Clarence B. Kelland

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.”
Sigmund Freud

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Mark Twain

`One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of many my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.’

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mother, Kathy, and to my lovely bride, Julie. Trager is 7 weeks old...I have a new found admiration for all mothers and the sacrificial love they dish out every day. So many of our mothers are simply heroic.

I thought I'd dig up some quotes about moms to help us reflect this Mother's Day. Enjoy!

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family. ~Lawrence Housman

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. ~William Makepeace Thackeray

Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected. ~Red Buttons

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children. ~Sam Levenson

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich. ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, M*A*S*H, "Identity Crisis."

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Failure Is Underrated

I ran across a quote yesterday that I liked:

"Reward success and failure. Punish inaction."

Seems like we're all so deathly afraid of failure. I know a lot of people (myself included) who won't even try something for fear of failling. I remember clearly when I was deciding to give up my day job and do photography exclusively. There is a lot to fear and a lot of room for failure, but I remember thinking and praying for the wisdom to not base decisions out of fear.

For one, as my buddy Ben Wayman taught me, most of our fears are illusions. They simply aren't real possibilities...or at least they have a very high unlikelihood of happening. But the fear of failure prods us to imagine all kinds of things as legit that simply aren't.

What's more is the failure is underrated. I'm not talking about the kind of failure that results from laziness and a lack of effort. I'm talking about the other side of the coin...when one legitimately sets out to accomplish some task but still fails. What's so bad in this? They will have learned and grown and have been stretched in the process. They will be better off by trying and failing than by not trying at all!

Yet, because we view failure as the worst outcome, we often just stay put and never grow into our full potential. Did anyone learn how to ride a bike without training wheels on the very first attempt? No, we all failed. But the failure helped us learn the skills necessary. Before you knew it we were cruising around the neighborhood and making ramps.

Reward success and failure. Punish inaction.

Quotes

I came accross a few great quotes this week. Check them out:

“Success is never an accident. It typically starts as imagination, becomes a dream, stimulates a goal, grows into a plan of action – which then inevitably meets with opportunity. Don’t get stuck along the way.” -Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love.

"Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living degeniuses them." -Buckminster Fuller

"There's no growth in the comfort zone, and there's no comfort in the growth zone". -Tim Holmes, friend of the [b]ecker.

Parents

I thought that for this week's quotes it'd be approptiate to post some about parenting/children (for those of you just checking in I just had my first son). Just so happens my weekly newsletter from Dan Miller provided what I was looking for.

It's not enough to make time for your children. There are certain stages in their lives when you have to give them the time when they want it. You can't run your family like a company. It doesn't work. -- Andrew Grove

They talk about how hard coaches work. They work 18, 20 hours a day. They sleep on a couch. They don't come home. You know, that's not the hard job. The hard job is a coach's wife, believe me. The job of the coach's wife, she has to be mother, father, driver, doctor, nurse, coach, everything, because the coach is out there working. -- John Madden

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world. -- Mother Teresa

At home we have always regarded the dining table as the prime seat of learning. We planned it so it was impossible to see or hear a TV from the table, and it has paid dividends in the volume of ideas that have been shared over the evening meal. -- Noel Whittaker

Quotes: Soul

I. I've been slacking on quotes of the week for a bit...please excuse me. Nonetheless, here's a few that deal with the soul.

"If you are losing your leisure, look out; you may be losing your soul." -- Logan P. Smith

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." -- Leonardo da Vinci

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." Martin Luther King Jr.

II. Everyone's been asking about Julie and how soon the baby is going to arrive. Well, she's full term this weekend, so basically anytime in March we'll see some action. As I've mentioned to many of you, any news will be posted here...so stay tuned!

Abundance

Your Wednesday quotes of the week. The topic: Abundance.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein

Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance. John Petit-Senn

Reflect upon your blessings, of which every man has plenty, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Charles Dickens

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into. Wayne Dyer

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I thought I'd share just two quotes. I often think about how to impact culture for good and for God. King, Jr. was definitely one of those rare men whose influence will last into many generations, if not indefinitely.

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"
Martin Luther King, Jr.