π£ Step 49: Bring the Mountain Home Seth Adams, Zack Kurowski, and I at Horizons In 2021, I was blessed to attend Sigma Chiβs Horizons Leadership Summit in Snowbird, Utah with two close fraternity brothers. As I look back on the past 5 years, that trip was my inflection point. Horizons was my light switch. Before Horizons, I was a leader, but it was more out of happenstance. I was innately good at things, but I never really invested in them. I was the kid who got good grades but never really...
8 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 48: Get a Bigger World Ash and I in Murren, Switzerland. The world definitely felt bigger here. I saw this video of a guy recounting a college interaction with his roommate. He was ranting over this small annoyance with a coworker when his roommate said βDude, you need a bigger world.β I.e. you need bigger problems. The lesson: Find big things to focus on, and the small things become irrelevant. So often, we get caught up over the small things: The fast food worker forgetting your...
15 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 47: Critical Thinking is Your Moat Last week I facilitated again at Sigma Chi's Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop, and I had a blast reconnecting with my fellow alumni brothers while pouring into my undergraduate group. I had a rockstar group of 13 guys, and they really leaned into the curriculum. They got close really quickly, and I could see the information really clicking and inspiring them. But there's one thing I want to discuss, as this was the first year I really noticed...
22 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 46: Tell Better Stories Stories are the bedrock of humanity. They've built and destroyed civilizations, launched thousands of ships across perilous seas, and raised and torn down the most influential people in history. We are all stories. The stories we tell others about who we are. The stories society tells us. The stories we tell ourselves. So, with stories being the foundation of humanity, it's easy to understand the importance of storytelling. We've all heard sayings such as...
29 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 45: Make It About Them Ash and I moved back into our apartment this weekend! Shoutout Bishop, Alex, and Autumn for helping out. The past week I've been (aside from moving): 1. working on my app, 2. creating a marketing presentation for a conference (submitted. Fingers crossed I'm selected), and 3. preparing for my Servant Leadership facilitation for Sigma Chi's annual workshop - and all 3 of them have had one thread in common. Make it about them. When creating a product or service, you...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 44: No Effort is Wasted I've put a lot of time the past month into my new app idea, and it's been wildly fun. It's an exciting creative venture, and I've been learning a lot about entrepreneurship, software development, and the tech startup world. This is the importance of 1. passion projects, 2. trying new things, and 3. being okay with whatever outcome. You never know how one venture will benefit you in a totally random, different way in the future. Example: I've always loved math,...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 43: Believe It! (No, Seriously) Me with my Naruto Gameboy game and Yu-Gi-Oh! shirt for Christmas 2006 (thanks Mom and Dad!) I found Naruto when I was 5/6 years old. It was its first (or close to first) airing in the US, and I was immediately hooked. After that, I watched every new episode ritualistically, every Saturday night at 8pm on Cartoon Network. Proof of my Saturday night watching ritual. Gaara (pictured here) is still one of my all time favorite characters of any show, animated...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 42: Make Weaknesses Irrelevant I'm building an app (seriously! I'll keep y'all updated as it progresses), and I've been learning a lot more about the tech startup space. UI/UX. Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A/B/C funding rounds. APIs and JSON. React Native, Netlify, Supabase, Figma, blah blah blah. I've found where my weaknesses are. I'm very good at: Creative thinking (envisioning the app in my head) Understanding target market assumptions and needed functionality (what users are looking...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
π£ Step 41: Shave It Off Going bald taught me a lot. It was one of the hardest inevitable things Iβve had to overcome. No matter what I did - Rogaine, Finasteride, Biotin, natural remedies, etc. - nothing stopped it. It may have slowed it, but it was still gonna happen. I built a part of my identity around my hair when I was in high school and early college. I loved it. I felt cool and so βme.β I remember how a high school coach even mentioned how much he noticed that I loved my hair. Then I...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read