Blog 03/24/08

March 24, 2008

Happy Easter! I hope you all enjoyed the day and were able to spend some time with family and also had the opportunity to reflect upon life in general and, more specifically the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and what it means for each of us. We were lucky to enjoy the company of Randy and Teresa - commiserating as we watched many of our bracket picks go down to defeat (what's with Duke anyway? And I have learned to never pick against Teresa when it comes to finding the right underdogs – check out the NCAA standings on the blog) - learning all the life lessons as presented by Dr. Seuss in Horton Hears a Who, and then worshiping together on Easter Sunday (also a great Easter dinner anchored by Grandma's delicious rolls). l Hope your Easter was as satisfying as ours.

Do you sometimes wonder how the rich and famous live? Last Friday Night we got a glimpse into the lives of a couple of successful men. Both of these men were profiled in "The Mormon Way of Doing Business" (I have shared this book with some of you) and they were doing a fireside at SVU. Here are some fun things we learned. David
Neelman, founder of Jet Blue and currently starting a new airline in Brazil, talked a little longer than expected and as he glanced at the clock he said, "I see the time going by but I'm not worried about missing my flight - I think it will wait for me - I'm the only Passenger!"

Then we heard from Rod Hawes - an insurance company owner that recently sold to Zurich Insurance for a lot of money. How much money? He was talking about the benefit of paying tithing (a great story that I won't go into here) and he said, "Don't pay tithing with a sad face. I think it is fun to pay tithing I thought it was fun as a graduate student when my yearly tithing totaled a $100.00 and it is even more fun now when my tithing check has 8 or 9 ZEROS behind it!" What? Run that by me again - let's see, 6 zeros make a million so 8 would make........ Now that is 10% of a lot of money!

Words to live by: From Horton, "a person is a person, no matter how small."

And from Sister Hawes (See above). Three things you can’t bring back, so take advantage of them when they happen. 1. Time – Never pass on something you really want to do because of time (her comment about being ready to do things with her husband, “In 30 minutes I can be ready to go anywhere – even to see the Pope.”). 2. Words – Use words for good not bad, because once spoken you can never take them back (“An evil word swallowed never hurt a stomach.”). 3. Opportunities – Don’t let them pass you by, they will never again come in quite the same form. These are good thoughts to make part of our lives.

Now what is this – I am below everybody on the NCAA (I think they call that dead last). Please Ben, give me some advice on the next round, I need help!

Love
Grandpa/Elder/Dad Cottle