“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
   ~ John Quincy Adams

Good morning friends!  After dealing with our emergency yesterday, life has ebbed back towards status quo, and we have Spencer off for a charter on his boat this fine morning.   While the xrays did not show a broken bone, the hand is badly injured and in a splint.  Fortunately, he had a friend volunteer to help him with his charter today.   He’s postponed his vacation by a month, which I have a sensing is for the better … read more

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
  ~ Albert Einstein

Life is hysterical.  Here we are in the process of reading Napoleon Hill’s chapter on Organized Planning.   And what is standing out for me is one big sentence that I wrote:

Our plans need to be practical and workable.  Not fixed.

Today I should be writing about the characteristics of a leader.  What makes a good one and what makes a bad one.

Instead, I’m going to write about life.  Because no matter how hard we plan, life is going to throw us curve balls.  And just as Albert Einsten say, it’s our ability to roll with the punches that determines our success. read more

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
  ~ Walt Disney

It’s a brisk, breezy and clear morning here on St. Thomas, clearing out the clouds to provide a perfect photo for the ultra clear message I’m about to deliver from ….

Yesterday morning, I read only 3 paragraphs of “Think and Grow Rich”.  The words contained within this short section of Napoleon Hill’s book I feel are profoundly important.    The words cannot be summarized, so I will provide them here for you in their entirety, breaking the paragraphs out into sentences, so you can contemplate each and every word.  When you read them, think of the story I’ve told you of my own life. read more

“I will not quit or shave my beard until the concrete is poured !!”
~ Spencer Dickey

Three Palms Villa – December 2005.

Lack of concrete, caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, delayed our construction.  These photos were taken 10 days before our Christmas rental was due to arrive.

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.”
  ~ Napoleon Hill 

To open his chapter on Organized Planning, Hill write:  “You have learned that everything we create or acquire begins in the form of desire.  Desire is taken on the first lap of its journey, from the abstract to the concrete, in the workshop of the imagination, where plans for its transition are created and organized.”

Hill then provides us with some basic instructions for Practical Plan Making: read more

“A quitter never wins – and a winner never quits!”
~ Napoleon Hill

What a pretty sunrise this morning, which took it’s sweet ol’ time to hurdle up over the peaks in the clouds. I sure hope this photo’s soft glow warms some hearts, as I hear another round of winter has descended for some of you (sorry!!) …

With this bit of extra time for my meditation, I was busy using that imagination of mine to envision a friend writing a musical comedy for Broadway. read more

“The imagination is the workshop where all plans are created.”
~  Napoleon Hill

Do you feel you have a strong imagination? I sure hope so !!!! Because it you don’t, you aren’t going anywhere fast. But on the bright side, imagination can be developed. Much like any muscle, your imagination will grow the more you use it …

Hill tells us that there are two types of imagination: Synthetic and Creative.

Most ideas will be born through the use of our synthetic imagination. We arrange old concepts, ideas or plans into new combinations. Synthesized imagination doesn’t create anything, it merely works with the materials of experience, education and observation. read more

 “I have a dream …”
   ~  Martin Luther King

What a beautiful quote, in honor of this fine man, as we continue our contemplations on “Thinking and Growing Rich” and The 4th Principle of Success or Specialized Knowledge.

Wikipedia says of King’s early life that he was “a precocious student, skipping both the ninth and the twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.” It’s worth taking a moment to read King’s bio on Wikipedia, noting the Principles of Success that King, like Gandhi, possessed: Specialized knowledge being one of them! read more