Showing results by author "John Gratton" in All Categories

No longer having carpet in your bathroom. Losing a job, finding a calling. Listening to elk bugle. Planting a garden. Discovering dyslexia in a child. Moving out of your in-laws’ house. Game nights with married children. Rest and nature walks. Unexpected time with grandmother. Teaching kids to fish and not to panic. Zoom for visiting, schooling, worshiping, celebrating, working. These are victories under any circumstances, but especially so under the murky, heavy clouds that 2020 forced on us. Here is proof that hope illuminated the darkness of even our worst days.

The first day of high school, 1969, I made a deal with another idiot that we wouldn’t do homework for four years. I somehow graduated, but with a very low GPA and little else. This book is about how I changed my mind and eventually, at age 24, realized that I wasn’t stupid after all. My motto - 4.0 or don't go - helped me beat procrastination and laziness and forced me to make different choices.

People yell, honk, throw things, even bark and howl at me, just because I ride a bike in traffic. I understand their frustration. I used to be one of those miserable car drivers, too, and there are few things worse. The three times I’ve driven in the last four years have confirmed that going "bike only" was the right decision, a physically and emotionally satisfying experience.

There is so much pressure to get rid of anything that isn’t easy, to let go of anything that hurts, to throw away what doesn’t meet our needs right now, to give up, to quit, to just walk away when things don’t work out how - and when - we want. And that’s the problem. Getting rid and letting go and throwing away and giving up and quitting and walking away are almost always a tragic mistake. Better is to keep, to hang on, to stick with it, to endure, to stay. Figure out what is wrong and what can be done, what must be done, to fix it, then do what it takes. Do it until.

More random but sparkling and insightful bits of news and short stories and anecdotes and parables and allegories that remind us of the structure extant in our day-to-day, some of the edges and vertices and angles of the quadrangles we form around us, solid things that we can count on to guide our actions.

Values, integrity, character, and ethics have distinct properties. There are rules you can't break, and lines that you can't cross and remain true. These bits of news and short stories and anecdotes and metaphors and parables and allegories simply remind us that the lines exist. Nothing preachy, merely the opportunity to consider your edges. Rather than following the crowd by seeing how close you can get to a line, why not embrace your values more fully, live with greater integrity, develop a superior character, and always act with unswerving ethics?

Quotidian the Llama, Volume 1: The Excellent Thoughts of Others is an often amusing collection of wise things other people and I have said, supported by 60-some wildly entertaining original stories and anecdotes. As Benjamin Disraeli said, "Nurture your mind with great thoughts." Some things are so well-said they can't be improved, and ought to be remembered and applied in some way to what we do. Words are more than just words. Words are good, essential, powerful.

My mom says that Never Iron Your Shirt is a satisfying blend of unique personal experience because professional sales is nothing if not personal and universal, but slightly askew, wisdom. If you need a second opinion, my wife agrees. Whether you've just completed your first day as a sales professional or your fifth decade, you'll find inspiration from the sometimes surprising stories and examples offered here.