Radical Grace in Life and Leadership

People of the Second Chance

TIPS FOR WHEN YOUR WIFE LEAVES YOU

Posted by Mike Foster: Follow Mike On Twitter

This week I am bachelor. My wife, kids and our little fluffy dog are all at Hume Lake till Saturday. They have been gone 8 hours and I already miss them.

So here are some activities and strategies I will be throwing myself into to stay out of trouble:

1. Go to bed early. Wake up early.

2. Go hang with my best friend in Vegas on Monday and Tuesday. Jud get the mancave ready!

3. Throw back a couple of bottles of Coca-Cola.

4. Play music that wifey doesn’t like VERY LOUD! Let Jay Z, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros rock!

5. Identify feeding schedule/strategy that does not involve Chick-Fil-A or hot dogs every night.

6. Spend time writing and working on new book “Gracenomics” that comes out this fall.

7. Park my 1993 Toyota Camry totally crooked in the garage….Cuz I can.

8. Go to Mom and Dad’s house for dinner on Wednesday night.

9. Find stuff in the house that I can sell on Ebay so I can buy a new Iphone 4.0.

10. Stay busy and active. Trouble is found in boredom.

11. Write a blog about being a bachelor.

ANY OTHER TIPS OR IDEAS THAT YOU WOULD SUGGEST? HELP!

Tweet This Post | Subscribe to Blog  |   |  Email a Friend

CRAZY SEX AMENDS AND 5 OTHER DUMB IDEAS

Posted by Mike Foster:

Making amends can be very critical to rebuilding after a failure.

But honestly, I’m often baffled by what righting a wrong looks like to some people.

Here are a few unproductive types I’ve seen:

1. REVENGE AMENDS
Sometimes amends will come in the form of unreasonably harsh conditions put on the failed person. This is where amends looks more like cruel payback for someone hurting you. You make them suffer and take great pleasure in them groveling, struggling, and making them miserable.

2. F-YOU AMENDS
Of course we have amends where the perpetrator tells the victim to just get over it! An example would be Bernie Madoff being quoted as saying, “F–k my victims! I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150 years.” This is when pure narcissism and sociopathic personalities kick in. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this way too often.

3. WUSS OUT AMENDS
This is where we apologize and make amends to people who were not directly hurt by our actions. We avoid the real victims we have injured and only say sorry to secondary people who we feel comfortable engaging with. An example would be saying sorry on your blog or in a public statement but never directly (and in person) to the actual people involved. A face to face apology is a powerful thing and is often overlooked in our digital age.

4. CRAZY SEX AMENDS
Sorry but I had to throw this one in. Last week 24 year old Anri Suzuki from Tokyo told Chinese media that she wanted to make amends for the Sino-Japanese War. The war resulted in the deaths of 23 million Chinese people, including 18 million civilians. She said, “I want to cure the wounds of China with my body, and I offer to do this by having sex with Chinese students in Japan. I think it would be a symbolic compensation for them.” Enough said.

5. THE POSSE AMENDS
This is where we send someone else in to clean up our mess and fix the problems we have made. Let’s face it! It’s always easier to let someone else deal with it but it’s not very productive. Often we let our posse, staff, assistant, lawyer or PR people handle it because we are too busy, too important, or simply don’t give a crap.

6. BUREAUCRATIC AMENDS
This is where some organization dictates some stupid process that does more damage than good. They create some plan that is confusing and is poorly managed. Often this involves boilerplate language put together by lawyers and rarely accomplishes anything positive.

Any other types of amends that you have seen? Good or bad?

Tweet This Post | Subscribe to Blog  |   |  Email a Friend

STORY CONFERENCE: SEPT 23-24

Posted by Mike Foster: Follow Mike On Twitter

Ben Arment is a great friend and someone that I highly respect. We connected last week and caught up on life. I shared with him about some new developments in my life and he did the same about his.

One of the items we talked about was STORY a conference that Ben has created for dreamers, artists, writers, and the creative class.

REGISTER FOR STORY HERE.

I had the opportunity to share at STORY last year about how we censor our story due to failure and Ben has always been a huge supporter of People of the Second Chance. I am forever grateful.

I got the scoop from Mr. Arment on the some of the behind the scenes details on STORY this year and I was blown away.

HERE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG:

Charlie Todd (creator of Improv Everywhere)
Princess Zulu (AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed)
Jason Fried (founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework)

HOLY COW! Enough said!

Except that Carlos Whittaker will be cranking up the killer tunes too! HELLLLOOOOO!

It’s going to be an amazing couple of days.

STORY: SEPT 23-24, 2010 : CHICAGO, IL

BTW, YOU MUST CHECK OUT THE STORY WEBSITE.

Tweet This Post | Subscribe to Blog  |   |  Email a Friend

SALTY SNACKS AND WHAT IS MANLY?

Posted by Mike Foster:

So I learned this morning I’m not very manly. Los Angeles was rated number 48 in America’s Manliest Cities.

Though I’m glad I don’t live in Portland. Sorry guys.

YOU CAN SEE THE FULL LIST HERE.

Charlotte, North Carolina is the most manliness due to its top 10 rankings in the sports, manly lifestyle, manly retail stores, manly occupations and salty snack sales categories.

So what really makes a man “manly?” Salty snack sales and NASCAR?

Tweet This Post | Subscribe to Blog  |   |  Email a Friend

SNUGGLE UP WITH FAILURE

Posted by Mike Foster:

Here is an article I wrote for Catalyst on the importance of failure in creativity called “SNUGGLE UP WITH FAILURE.”

“We are not OK with failure. I’ve never seen a CEO’s bio proclaiming the projects that went belly up. I won’t log onto your website today and hear about your underperforming men’s ministries or how last weekend’s services were completely…”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.

Tweet This Post | Subscribe to Blog  |   |  Email a Friend

Recent Posts

Archives

#POTSC

POTSC's Twitter

Recent Comments