A few days ago I was speaking with a friend of mine. He’s the owner of a good size company that employs around two dozen people and grosses maybe a million a year in revenue. He told me about two workers that had been caught steeling from petty cash. A thousand buck it was. He found this out with video surveillance then afterwards continued having the workers work so he could get reimbursed for the theft. When it came time for them to get their paychecks he showed them the video. Their jaws dropped. He said he was on the verge of filing a police report. Instead he gave these fired foolish young men grace.

My friend is a good and kind man… What these guys lacked was INTEGRITY.

When I moved to the town I now live in about 14 years ago there was a field in the town. I drove past it every day on my way to and from work. It was maybe four or five acres in size with a worn out fence and lot’s of weeds. For years it didn’t change. Then one day it did. Large earth movers began to dig and shape the soil and over the next few months what had been an empty field turned into a brand new shopping center with Albertson’s, Verizon, Starbucks, hair salon, McDonald’s and some other stores. A piece of dirt that had only generated modest property tax revenues now produced massive tax revenues and MILLIONS of dollars in income for the businesses now there as well as dozens of jobs for people. Each of which now continues to pay income taxes. There’s also tens of thousands of dollars in sales taxes that are yearly generated…. The property was developed.

Have you ever made an omelette? And if so do you get all the ingredients out and start cooking? Or do you turn on the stove top, throw the pan down and go in search of the butter and eggs? When it comes to cooking up our masterpieces there are different ways of getting the job done. My wife pulls everything out and gets going. Once she’s done the food is awesome but it looks like a bomb went off in the kitchen! I, on the other hand, try to end up with everything being put away and even rinsed before I sit down to eat. I try to be efficient as I cook…

Answer? They look fake…. And with that this could have been one of the shortest blogs ever! However that would be pretty dumb. So let’s dig into this question more deeply.

Obviously the issue is looks. What does the rock, or for that matter the overall feature, look like? And how does it match up with the real thing? When it comes right down to it the key is getting our fake rock projects to match nature. So to achieve this our simple task is to study and copy nature. Have you done this lately? If not don’t feel bad I haven’t either.

OUR FORMULA
After years making rock features many of us have developed our fake rock “style”. This is the look that our rockwork takes from our personal carving and texturing technique(s) over time. This includes how we lay out or compose our projects. How we “crack” and texture them with large and small details. And lastly how we color them.

Our lives, and our bodies are inside an endless state of movement. The flow or STREAM of time. Each second of time ticks forward being replaced by another and another never stopping. And with each and every new second we have an opportunity to redeem our thoughts which can lead to new and better beliefs, and then actions. If things aren’t right you DON’T have to continue thinking the way you do and doing the things you do, (or don’t do). You CAN improve your life at any moment! This is the gift of being in the Stream!

Isn’t that a great title for a bog! How to Be Miserable and Unhappy? I mean after you hear this title surely you must have a burning desire to discover how to achieve these stellar and important states of being, right? Probably not… Interestingly whatever state of mind you find yourself in, whether positive or negative, the cause is the same. How you think. Unless you have a chemical imbalance in your brain, (which can most likely be treated) you and I are responsible for the thoughts we are experiencing. It IS a choice, (and for further reading just grab a copy of Dan Greenburg’s book “How to Make Yourself Miserable” if ya like).

Recently a spacecraft landed successfully on Mars. It’s job to study the planet on a number of fronts. As the November 26th NASA news report stated, “Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (485-million-kilometer) journey from Earth.” Congratulation NASA! An incredible achievement. Amazing… Our quest and passion to explore seems wired into our DNA. We long to look out beyond ourselves to see, touch, taste, feel and smell the world we live in and even worlds far far from our own if we can but get there.

What could you do in the next six months? Loose some weight? Read a book? Or just keep on keepin’ on??? These questions speak of time. A specific block of time. Something I’ve always resisted thinking about most of my life. Starting in school my reluctance to think about things in terms of time or a schedule began. I hated the brackets and boxes that people put time into. If a class or activity was boring or unpleasant time slowed down, (especially Algebra class!) If I was involved in a project, game, or especially some creative pursuit I never had enough time. Very annoying… And my struggles with time continue to this day. However, even though I’m an Old Dog I am learning new tricks…

He,[1] was born July 13th, 1942 in Chicago Illinois to an advertising executive and former radio actress. He loved the Boy Scouts. Earning his Reptile Study merit badge working at a Scout camp during the summer and then reached it’s second highest rank, Life Scout before moving on to other interests. In 1960, he graduated from Maine East High School in Perk Ridge Illinois and was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH. He was also its first sportscaster during his senior year (1959–60). He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and then took a drama class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness.

Dig hole. Fill with the right amount of rebar, plumbing, and electrical stuff to make it work. Spray on the concrete, (shotcrete). Finish with some tile and coping treatments, (the edges of the pool) plaster and it’s basically done. Sounds simple right? Maybe that’s why we’ve all heard about bad pool contractors. These guys thought building pools was simple, easy and had minimal risk with maximum profit.

Well I’ve been around pool builders for years. I’ve met some I liked and some not so much. But what I did learn was that building a quality pool isn’t so easy.

People often ask me how I build stuff, (Like I could tell them in one quick sentence.). The answer of course takes paragraphs. Maybe even a book… Like everything we all do explaining even the simplest task or processes is not so easy. You can even see perfect examples of this by watching the TV show “Undercover Boss”. The CEO or owner of the company secretly tries to do the jobs of the lower level staff members and often struggles to do it correctly. How we do stuff takes time and practice. Days, weeks & even years if you want to be a lawyer or doctor. But all of us can and do learn and eventually become experts at something. Even multiple somethings. This really is one of life’s greatest adventures and opportunities. Learning, growing, discovering….

Swimming pools are awesome! But swimming pools with a slide are MORE awesome. That’s if they’re built right. If they’re not they can be a real pain in the butt. Literally. And if they’er built really bad they might even kill you if you go flying out of one.

For decades I’ve been building fake rock concrete pool slides. Long ones, short ones and ones with turns. I’ve repaired and remodeled them too. Oftentimes trying to make them safer and more fun to ride. I’ve put them on hills, on flat ground and squeezed them into places that were a tight fit. And when you rode one slide I made you couldn’t even see the end of it when you started. It was completely hidden behind bushes until after you made the turn. I’ve made grottos and caves with slides on top of them and hidden them next to waterfalls as well. Just about everywhere people wanted one I built one.

Truth is you can’t. You cannot start a business with Nothing. It’s impossible. Nothing begets nothing. But the other reality is you are way more of a “Something” than a “Nothing”. All of us have a whole bunch of “Something” that we bring to the table. Amazing minds, passions, abilities, and life experiences! So the question should really be “How to start a business with Something”.

Were you like me when you were a kid? Didn’t like eating your vegetables? And then when your parents asked you to do things you didn’t want to do, did you said no? Or were you the perfect kid? Followed directions and obediently marched to their tune? If so I commend you! You were smarter than me.

Who decides what you do? Who directs your path? Your activities? Your agenda? Your goals? How you will react to life’s ups and downs? Well, YOU obviously! But how often have you found yourself giving away your power? Blaming someone or something for why you can’t do something, have somethings or achieve something? And have you also found yourself at times blaming yourself for why you can’t have, do, or say something? If you’re like me I bet you have.

I’ve finished writing my book Makin’ Rocks! It’s taken months to complete and includes decades of examples of projects I’ve created shown in hundreds of photos on over 135 pages. This book reveals everything I’ve learned over 34 years working with my hands. I show what works, what doesn’t and what the keys are to being able to design and build real and authentic looking rocks and water features. I also include some of the keys to starting and running a successful business.

So how’d I do this? I’ll tell you

A day came when i had to turn a crap load of concrete into “rocks”. Something I had never done before. I needed to trowel, shape. compose, and texture thousands of pounds of concrete before it got too hard to modify. Which on a hot summer day could be in a matter of minutes. But once I got over that first day, I was able to create monstrous faux rock water features for years to come… And command much larger budgets…

Do you find it more and more difficult to break through the wall that your wife, husband, son, daughter or friend has built with their phone? That devise that serves as a phone only a small fraction of the time? Or does your kid walk around with ear buds permanently attached to his/her head? Like they’re living in an alternate reality? Or maybe you have developed a compulsion to check your phone frequently to see if someone texted or messaged YOU!? Last I heard on average we check out our phones 80+ times a day. And that’s an AVERAGE! Well I’ve experience it all. In fact I think I’m addicted!