mikonmark » Leading

Coach John Wooden – Pyramid of Success

mikonmark — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:30:34 +0000

My Dad was a basketball coach. I remember him reading John Wooden books when I was growing up. John Wooden influenced a man’s character. Coach Wooden coaching style and discipline certainly influenced my father. And indeed that influenced me.

If you are not familiar with Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, please click here and read about on Coach Wooden’s site. It is just not success in basketball. It is about success in life.

Coach Wooden loved basketball, but he loved those he coached more. Jamaal Wilkes said that Coach Wooden valued love above all else. Love is what make a man great.

I have no doubt that Coach Wooden is resting in peace. God Bless Coach Wooden.

Icon of Hope

mikonmark — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:58:04 +0000

Who is your Inunnguaq? The Icon of Hope is a Gift of Gratitude for someone who has helped you on our journey.

The Inuit people of Northern Canada build stone structures to point the way across desolate tundra and ice. Sometimes built in the shape of a man, they are called Inunnguaq. These stone sentinels can save a life on the harsh, frozen landscape where few survive alone.

These stones are called INUNNGUAQ (pronounced EEN-NON-WOK). They are used by the Inuit people of the icy tundra of Northern Canada. Stacked stones “in the shape of a man” – the meaning of Inunnguaq – are a landmark and survival guide for travelers on a journey.

They are placed from one horizon to the next. The Inuit erect these stones out of love for fellow travelers – people they may never know. They say, “You are on the right path…you arenot alone.

Express your appreciation to that person who has shown you the way.

Join the movement. Share the Icon of Hope. Let there be 1,000,000 Icons of Hope in the World.

Basketball and the Game of Life

mikonmark — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:55:51 +0000

Yes, I LOVE Basketball. My dad was a basketball coach. I love the headiness of the game. Basketball is a sport where game knowledge, savvy, and scrapiness will trump talent. I am not an raw athlete – I can’t jump and I’m skinny. When I walk on the court with a bunch of other players who don’t know my game I barely get a look. I know the fundamentals and I am a disciplined player. My wife will say I am very aggressive; I say that I just play hard. I give a crap. I don’t like being a lazy player.

Over the years I have come to enjoy that kind of “disrepect” because I often flip it into being the go-to guy. Many aspects of life are like that. People judge the outside because they can’t calibrate the head and the heart. You gotta be in the game before they know the real you.

Knowledge, fundamentals, discipline, and effort. That is a great recipe for success. However, you don’t gain knowledge unless you play the game. You don’t perfect the fundamentals unless you play the game. Discipline and effort are not exercised until you are in the game. If you are serious about what you want to do with your life then GET IN THE GAME and give it everything you have. Then someday you might be a champion.

Go Butler!

Make a symbol about something you love at Mikons.com. Then share with others how your love made you a champion.

The Giving Hand

mikonmark — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:19:46 +0000

You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. — Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet

Tear Down This Wall

mikonmark — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:07:57 +0000

We all remember that iconic call that Ronald Reagan made at the steps of the Berlin Wall’s Brandenburg Gate…”Gorbachev tear down this Wall!”

The speech writer who tendered that speech writes a facinating story of how that iconic call came to be. Click here to read his facinating account. Sec of State George Shultz, State Department and National Security Council all objected to that call. Even through many revisions where Regan insisted that it was the right thing to do, they still clammered in fear not to include such an aggressive call.

Getting in the limo to the Wall, Regan made the final decision to keep that line in that now famous speech. ‘The boys at State are going to kill me,’ Regan said, ‘but it’s the right thing to do.’

That is leadership. That is courage. That is facing down the fear of others and still doing the right thing.

Here is some of the goosebump inspiring text of that speech.

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. . . . Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. . . . As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. . . .
    General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
    Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
    Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

The wall was torn down 2 years later during a time of civil unrest the GDR dismantled the wall thus unifying Germany, and indeed all of Europe.

You can make visual symbols of iconic moments in history and in your life at www.Mikons.com.

Make a Mikon and Create a Tribe

mikonmark — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:43:53 +0000

Do you believe in an idea? Do you have passion for it? Are you willing to put yourself at the fore and lead? Seth Godin writes about this in his book “Tribes”. My friend Kevin Koym, the leader of Enterprise Teaming, turned me on to it and has been encouraging me to focus Mikons on what he calls affinity groups. I just read that book – “Tribes”. It is inspiring. It is one of the reasons for Mikons. Here he talks about it at the TED Conference.

A Mikon is a symbol about your group – your tribe. When you see someone with your Tribe’s symbol, then you know they are part of you. It is your visual symbol of connection.

But more important than a logo or a mikon is your contribution to change the world. In the video and in the book Seth offers this challenge to see if you have the mustard.

Who are you upsetting. If you are not pissing someone off then you are not changing anything.
Who are you connecting. If your passion does not translate into connection, then it is just a hobby.
Who are you leading. If your passion is just in the silo of your own mind, then your are just a rebel without a clue or a cause.

Come to grips with this: If your are not changing, then you are dead – you are not contributing, you are just consuming. Seth offer his thoughts on what it takes to lead a Tribe.

Leaders challenge the status quo.
Leaders create a culture – a culture where change happens in the context of a shared passion.
Leaders are committed. Leaders surrender themselves to something greater than themselves.

Finally he pleads, we need tribes, we need leaders, we need you to lead tribes that will change the world.