Faith & Understanding

Faith begins where understanding ends. 

Literally: the two can not exist within the same mind, about the same thing.

If you've seen it, or you understand how it happened, what you have is not faith. (In that particular matter.) 

True faith can only exist in absence of understanding. 

"Blessed are those who believe without seeing". 

Rule 4: Don't linger in doorways

Get in, or get out. 

If you know it's right to pass through this door, do so. If you know it isn't, don't. 

Feelings lie. Do what is right. (Rule 22)

Decide. Act. Deal with the fallout. 

Before & After

Chop wood; carry water. 

Rule 12

"If you want to win, you have to be a winner". 

That isn't to say that winners always win. Sometimes they win; sometimes they lose, but losers never win. In fact, one could go so far as to say, "you can't win with losers". Rule 12 goes exactly that far. No matter how much effort you put into it, you can't make a loser into a winner.  

Now before this idea tips you over the edge into despair at the plight of humanity, remember, all winners don't win all the time. Sometimes winners win, and sometimes not. Our job then, becomes to decide which is which before we let people into our lives, our hopes, or our dreams. Mistakes in this area are the ones for which we pay the most dearly. 

No matter how much better off you are after the fallout, the bitter taste that lingers even after they've gone from your life is one you don't forget. 

So be careful. Be methodical. Be calm. Be patient. Trust the wisdom of those words. There is a reason you continue to hear them in your life. 

Commit to being a winner. Do the things winners do. Do these things and your win percentage will rise. 

And remember, "if you want to win, you have to be a winner". 

Rule 19

"If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, say what you mean and mean what you say". - Joe Bunner IV (my dad)

There is a difference between precise, and easy to understand. There is a difference between precise and transparent. There is a difference between telling a stone cold truth and spelling out every little detail to make what you're saying easy to understand to the person with whom you're speaking. 

You don't have to be a warm-fuzzy communicator. Be precise. Those who have ears will hear. Those who do not will not... and those who don't want to listen will be forced to CHOOSE not to listen. Rule 19 is not about the effect you have on other people. It is about the effect the words you use have on yourself. 

Be precise. Precision communication is a good background against which to judge the reactions of the people with whom you come into contact.  If you are precise and consistent, you can tell a lot about other people by how they react to your words. 

Good luck. 

A man has to have a code.

Rules I try to live by. Some are borrowed. Number 51 is down right stolen, but that doesn't matter. Good ideas don't care where they come from, and a man has to have a code. 

1. Never screw (over) your partner. 

2. It pays to be a winner. 

3. Don't take anything for granted. 

4. Don't linger in doorways.

5. When you get the answer you want, hang up. 

6. Never assume. 

7. Always work as a team (when possible). 

8. Don't waste good. 

9. If it feels like you're being played, you probably are. 

10. If it feels like someone is out to get you, they are. 

11. When all else fails, be an athlete. 

12. If you want to win, you have to be a winner.

13. Oxygen is overrated. 

14. Strength is underrated. 

15. Never be violent, but if you must, remember rule 2. 

16. Trust people as much as you understand their intentions, competence, and commitment. 

17. When you have the choice, choose adventure. 

18. Use precise language. 

19. Predictability breeds trust... and boredom. Keep it spicy.

20. Always use the Oxford comma. 

21. Define the mission precisely. 

22. Feelings lie. Do what is right. 

23. Always be there for those who truly support you. 

Rule 51. Sometimes you're wrong.

The Rebel Soul

The rebel soul is a rule breaker at heart. 

He sees a different path... In fact, he sees more paths than most people see, and at first it is disconcerting to him that others can be so limited. The more well-worn paths, to him, are the most distasteful choices. 

So he fights the tyranny of the well worn path. He breaks the rules. He makes mistakes. He fails. He is deluged with good advice and admonishments. Everyone can see his potential.  He could be so good at whatever he wanted if he'd just put his mind to it. 

Therein lies the rub. He doesn't want to put his mind to it. He doesn't want to be good at following the well worn path. To the rebel, no life could be more miserable. 

As a child, a teen, an adult in the workforce he is often unhappy with the directions he receives and asks "why" so often he begins to despise the answers. No one is battered more consistently with speeches about "tradition" than the rebel, and no one is more deeply bruised by these than he who is most often their target. 

So he stops asking. "No one knows why", he gathers. If he is strong and willing to live the life of his dreams, he becomes a pilgrim. A seeker. Submerged in the romance of the hunt, he sometimes loses sight of everything other than the search. 

The rebel's journey is often one of solitude. If he's lucky he'll have friends and aquaintences who join his cause. Maybe he will find love and maybe not. These things are all important, but none more so than his journey, because if he catches himself on a well worn path, he has lost the essence of his life. 

The true rebel soul has the same needs as most other people do. Love, affection, fun, etc., but the rebel has one need that surpasses them all... One need that is so important, he can't live without pursuing it, and he must put it above all else in his life. 

Revolution. 

The size of the revolution can vary, from self-improvement, to winning championships, to changing, disrupting, or improving an industry, to world wars, but to the rebel, the importance of the revolution never varies. 

The revolution is his only path to fulfillment. 

Stay Hungry or Die,

Joe