Archived April, 2012
Monday, April 30th, 2012
A few weeks ago, I visited Yellowstone Park with my videographer friend John. John is working on a documentary film about the gray wolf. Living here in the West and specifically in the Northern Rocky Mountains, the issue of the wolf is extremely controversial. Wolves disappeared (were killed) in the Lower Forty-Eight in the 1920s. In the mid-1990s, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park and Central Idaho. Today, the wolf is surviving – and some claim thriving.
The controversy is straightforward. Are wolves a good part of nature and the ecology as a whole, or are they a menace threatening livestock, game animals, and even man?
My opinion has been formed from the work John has been doing. The bottom line is it’s complicated. It’s not black and white – good or bad – wolves do well in the wild but need to be managed when their hunting territories overlap with people and civilization.
Here are some of my findings and thoughts about the wolf.
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Tags: Howling in the Rockies, John Williams, Steve Weber, Wolf, Wolves, Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Wolf Project
Posted in Steve's Journey | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Stories of Gumption is a regular column that profiles individuals who admirably demonstrate Gumption as we define it. These are the stories of real people who exhibit gumption in overcoming personal challenges, and validate the spirit of Gumption during their journey. Let’s take inspiration from those who seize 100% personal responsibility and show us how to live a life that exhibits Gump-like character traits worthy of applause!
Last week I presented at the Montana School Counselors Association (MSCA) Spring Conference. School counselors have to Function with Gumption to effectively do their job. In many ways, they’re like independent entrepreneurs working within the educational system.
When successful at their jobs, school counselors not only Function with Gumption personally, they also help their primary clients – the kids – learn to Function with Gumption for themselves. That is a big responsibility and an extremely important contribution to society.
Here are a few things I learned about school counselors.
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Tags: Forrest Gump, Function with Gumption, Montana School Counselors Association, MSCA, Steve Weber, Stories of Gumption
Posted in Business, Gumption, Meetings & Events, Steve's Journey, Stories of Gumption | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Napoleon Hill started the concept of a mastermind group.
Since becoming involved in the National Speakers Association (NSA) starting in November 2010, I’ve been slowly learning the concept of the mastermind.
Napoleon Hill introduced the idea of the mastermind in his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich: “The Mastermind principle consists of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective.” … Or, two heads are better than one.
A single person is limited by his or her own thinking and biases. But a group of like-minded individuals can solve problems and challenges quicker and better – the collective whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Up until this point, I’ve not formally participated in a mastermind group. I do have a group of speaker friends I talk with on the phone from time to time. We discuss the business, challenges, and goals. I’ve considered them masterminds, but they’ve only been the two of us and the frequency is not regular – maybe every few months.
This week starts my participation in a new mastermind group with Karen and Lois. The common connection is we’re all speakers living in the Missoula area. Our goal is to help each other in our individual speaking businesses. We’ll meet once a month for three hours. I’m enthusiastic and optimistic as the Missoula Mastermind Group launches.
Here are seven guiding principles to consider when starting your own mastermind group.
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Tags: Karen Marsolek, Lois McElravy, Mastermind, Mastermind Group, Montana Speaker, Napoleon Hill, Steve Weber
Posted in Business, Steve's Journey | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Last week I presented at the Safety Conference jointly hosted by the Utah Mining and the Utah Manufacturing Associations. As the lunch hour speaker, my task was to promote safe practices in both the workplace and at home – and encourage each participant to Function with Gumption.
From my preparations and then the Safety Conference presentation, the idea of Safety Gumption emerged.
Marrying safety and the three principles of Gumption is a natural.
Here are my three principles of Safety Gumption.
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Tags: Function with Gumption, Gumption, Safety, Safety Gumption, Safety Meeting, Steve Weber, Utah Manufacturing Assoc, Utah Mining Assoc
Posted in Business, Gumption, Meetings & Events | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2012
People coming together to work on volunteer committees.
Over the past few years, I’ve become actively involved working with two volunteer committees. One is a local civic charity and the other is a professional business organization. I’ve learned several ways to get things done and become a productive member of the team.
Working on volunteer committees is similar but also very different from working with others at a paid job. Most significantly, there is no real threat of firing or quitting. There is no compelling obligation. You (and others) are there because you choose to be there. You can’t really fire anyone on the committee for not doing their job, and you can’t use the threat of quitting as a means to impose change. When you work on a volunteer committee, your only real strategy is to do the work yourself and attempt to influence others to do the work that needs doing.
Here are six ideas that help me be more productive and enjoy my experience of working on a volunteer committee.
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Tags: Gumption, Steve Weber, Volunteer Committee, Volunteering, Working with Groups, Working with Others
Posted in Business, Gumption, Meetings & Events, Steve's Journey | No Comments »
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
I may not be a smart man … but I sure am having fun!
Three posts ago, I described the little white lie I told about being the real Forrest Gump … the one they made the movie about. I mentioned that I told this fib hundreds of thousands of times.
Often, a person would approach me quietly after I’ve declared my Gumpness and say, “So, how’d you get this gig?” I’d confidently repeat my fib – most times that would end our conversation. But some small percentage of the people wouldn’t buy it. They’d demand more and say, “No really, how’d you get this job?” At that point, I’d lean in and whisper, “Genetic luck, a bad haircut, and the idiot part comes natural.”
My two previous posts focused on genetic luck and a bad haircut … today, we’ll complete my three-part answer by assessing and the idiot part comes natural.
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Tags: Attitude, Forrest Gump, Function with Gumption, Gumption, Laughing at Yourself, Motivational Speeches, Steve Weber
Posted in Business, Life Lessons, Steve's Journey | No Comments »
Monday, April 9th, 2012
What’s the bad haircut that you have to live with?
Two posts ago, I described the little white lie I told about being the real Forrest Gump … the one they made the movie about. I mentioned that I told this fib hundreds of thousands of times.
Often, a person would approach me quietly after I’ve declared my Gumpness and say, “So, how’d you get this gig?” I’d confidently repeat my fib – most times that would end our conversation. But some small percentage of the people wouldn’t buy it. They’d demand more and say, “No really, how’d you get this job?” At that point, I’d lean in and whisper, “Genetic luck, a bad haircut, and the idiot part comes natural.”
My last post focused on genetic luck … today, we’ll take a look at the bad haircut part of the equation.
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Tags: A Bad Haircut, Doing what is necessary, Forrest Gump, Function with Gumption, Genetic Luck, Gumption, Motivational Speaker, Steve Weber
Posted in Business, Life Lessons, Steve's Journey | No Comments »
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Genetic luck gave me my genes just as genetic luck gave this baby girl her genes.
In my last post, I described the little white lie I told about being the real Forrest Gump … the one they made the movie about. I mentioned that I told this fib hundreds of thousands of times.
Often, a person would approach me quietly after I’ve declared my Gumpness and say, “So, how’d you get this gig?” I’d confidently repeat my fib – most times that would end our conversation. But some small percentage of the people wouldn’t buy it. They’d demand more and say, “No really, how’d you get this job?” At that point, I’d lean in and whisper, “Genetic luck, a bad haircut, and the idiot part comes natural.”
Today, let’s discuss genetic luck.
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Tags: Forrest Gump, Function with Gumption, Genetic Luck, Gumption, Nature versus Nurture, Steve Weber, Tom Hanks
Posted in Steve's Journey | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Mama explains to Forrest that promoting a ping-pong paddle was only a ‘little white lie’.
Sixteen years ago, I started performing for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. My job was to sit in front of the restaurant on a park bench talking to tourists and potential shrimp consumers. My task was pretty simple. I engaged people in conversation and created a gump-like experience for them. It was a soft sell: Come sit with Forrest, take a picture, enjoy yourself, and if you’re hungry we have great shrimp, burgers, etc. It worked perfectly.
Except … I was asked one question that initially I didn’t have a good answer. I tried telling the pure truth, but that didn’t work out so well. So I created my own ‘little white lie.’ You’ll remember in the movie when Mama encouraged Forrest to promote the Flex-O-Ping-Pong Paddle. She acknowledged that it was just a little white lie and wasn’t hurting anyone.
Here is the question that I was asked and the little white lie I created to better fulfill my mandate of creating a gump-like experience for the tourists visiting Cannery Row in Monterey, California.
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Tags: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Forrest Gump, Function with Gumption, gump-like, Gumption, Little White Lie, Steve Weber
Posted in Business, Life Lessons, Steve's Journey | No Comments »
