I did a real estate closing today for a man who embodied courage. He was not a huge or imposing figure physically but the strength of his character filled the room like a balloon blown up inside of a 2 liter pepsi bottle. There was little room weak constitutions or selfishness. I inquired why he was moving and he indicated that he was moving to West Virginia to take of  his sister. I asked rather presumptiously if she was ill and he confirmed. He stated that she was given 2 months to live because she had advanced bone cancer. “She called me a month ago and said, I need your help. I am dying and I need you,” he clarified. He did not add emphasis or hyperbole just a matter of fact statement of declared need. He told me that he decided to sell his house and start a new chapter of his life by helping close hers.  He stated that God knew what he was doing. I asked how.  He told me that his wife died of cancer last year and he would not have been able to move to West Virginia if she had still been sick. “The thing that really concerns me is my sister’s 12 year old son. What is he going to do?” he asked. The enormity of this man’s task and character settled into my chest like double pneumonia. I was awed by the lack of bitterness and selfishness in his heart and perspective.This man’s draft card got pulled. Instead of burning the card or outsourcing the calling, he stepped up and accepted his call to duty. God drafted this man into war against sadness, illness and pain all while knowing the inevitable.  God did not ask him nor consult him but called him up nevertheless because I think God knows that this man has the courage to fight the fight.  As he left my office, he said, ” I know everything is going to be ok.”  I could use some of that courage. AH 

I am a horrible “multitasker” but today I met tragedy. While on a conference call and driving my car I was taking a bite of my chik fil a sandwich. My sweet succulant chik fil a sandwich. I had to put the sandwich on the passenger seat while I wiped my mouth and adjusted my phone. At the next turn my sandwich flew off the seat and into the floor. I could not believe that my sandwich was lost. Still on the call yet mourning for my sandwich, I made it back to my office and stopped for a decision. Do I dust off the sandwich and eat it or do I toss it and miss out on another gourmet chik fil a. If you have never eaten a chik fil a sandwich then you don’t understand this dilemma but if you have you can picture yourself making this call. I went with my OCD impulses and threw it away but 6 hours later I am still hurting from my loss.AH 

There is a concept entitled allowing that I am struggling to get my head around. Basically allowing is the idea that we do not receive things into our life because we erect barriers to these items. I am so guilty of this that I have retreated into status quo over the last few years. From 2005, I have been clearing my barriers to things which I want to receive in my life. The issue for me is that I don’t know what I want so I have just been working. If I knew what I wanted in my life, I could then identify the barriers. I am so screwed up that I can’t even identify what I want so how can I allow it if I don’t know what it is. Most of what I know is old and useless now. Einstein said that you can’t use the same level of thinking to get you out of a problem which old thinking got you into. I need some new thinking to allow the things I want.AH 

Yesterday I was driving home and I realized how small my world is in my mind sometimes. 6 Billion people in the world and I consider my world so full. I am so naive. Before this realization, I was considering the importance of my day and the significance of my work. Sitting in traffic driving home, the weight of my insignificance came upon me and I thought how silly I am. My life is full of silly thoughts, silly dreams and silly concerns which are completely important to me yet insignificant to the other 5,999,999,999 people on the planet. As I drove past the Dairy Queen on Battlefield Boulevard inching toward Cedar Road, I realized that God has a purpose for me which is not insignificant nor silly. That is the point of God’s purpose for us.  Without the creator’s purpose we are insignificant and silly but since he knows our “why” for 6,000,000,000 of us I should be thankful. I don’t know but he does so my job is to seek him so that he will reveal it to me.AH 

Everyone is getting an award now. My director of operations told me that we should not give out awards for second place. I agree. Awards are important and different types of awards show different types of success. At an academic award banquet last night, certificates were given out to at least 200 hundred students.  I am not sure what they were for (grade point average I think) but what occurred was fascinating. When the Seniors were called they started given out medallions for Seniors with a 3.0 or higher. Now that is a stretch. 3.0 in high school is a “getting out” gpa. The interesting part was that the students who scored a 4.0 and higher were not distinguished or set apart. No mention of Valedictorian or Salutatorian. No distinction made between the rest of the pack and the elite students. That sums up our rapid deterioration as a nation. Best is irrelevant now. Everyone is the same. Everyone does well so nobody is better than anyone else. That is not true. Those students who sacrificed studied and put in the time are better than the 3.0 student. They are not better people maybe but they are better students. Spreading out the accolades to every mediocre slacker who did enough to get a 3.0 is self-esteem crap. Our country has to stop diminishing the best for the self-esteem of the mediocre. The mediocre need to work harder or get left behind. If we started doing this maybe we can return to our shining example instead of the pathetic wimps we have become.AH 

As a child, Sundays were a special and reverent day. There were many reasons for this but I will only mention a couple. My father worked 6 days a week. He still works six days a week but Sunday mornings were special because this was the Sabbath or as my mom described as “The Lord’s Day.” I would wake up to my father whipping up waffles in the kitchen. I can remember stirring in my bed listening for the clanking of glasses or the cabinet opening and the waffle iron being removed. He would develop his batter and cooking equipment with chef like authority. I would steal some chocolate chips while he tasked me with jobs such as chopping the nuts or stirring the batter. We would talk politics, school, work or whatever we needed to catch up. My mother would lumber down when he was finished and he would serve the whole family. All of his care and attention seemed normal as a child until I realized that many fathers who worked as hard as he did for six days would have approached Sundays with selfish arrogance. My father loves us too much to be selfish. Sundays were weekly examples of Christian fatherhood - a bear of a man cooking cleaning and caring for his family. As I got older, I respectively called him Hazel because of his devotion to the domestic duties in the house. After breakfast, he would announce that it was time to “get ready for church”. The rest of the family would scurry upstairs to ready ourselves for worship all being followed by my father’s rich baritone singing and whistling praises to God. I never actually saw him get ready but he was always  first leading us to a committed day of worship. Sundays with my own family are very similar. I cook waffles for my family on Sunday morning and announce for them to get ready for church. I don’t sing them upstairs but my IPOD plays praise music wrapping them hopefully in anticipated preparation of their hearts to hear something life changing from God’s word. Some Sunday mornings when I get up early, I will change clothes and drive to my parents for a nostalgic waffle prepared by my father. We talk about movies, work, politics, grandchildren and God. 35 years of waffles. There is not a Sunday morning where I think that those waffles will not be there if I drive to my parents. If you are in need of a good breakfast and some loud baritone stop by one Sunday morning.AH 

Last night I discovered that fat people should not do yoga. I am fat. Yoga is the art of contortion such as touching toes, bending over, twisting, rising dog, setting sun, the Oh No, and my favorite the “you can do it”. Fat people can’t do it because they are fat. I can still see my toes I just can’t touch them. I want to touch them but I end up just saying hello to them by waving from above my belly. Some of the ladies were actually small enough to touch their toes and give them a pedicure while I was straining and willing myself to touch them settling for the embarassing toe wave from above.Well if you get beyond the obvious uncomfortable situation of being the only male in the room, the yoga is, how do you say, torture. I never thought that slow movement could produce that much strain. If you did not know this fat people sweat. I sweat when I am standing still. Part of this condition is my Greek heritage (lots of fur equals lots of heat which equals lots of sweat), but the other part of this condition is that I am fat. I started sweating from having to move my mat which is weightless by the way. Next to me was my wife who has had to encounter this sweating situation in much more intimate situations so she is either oblivious now or I think she is quietly disgusted but too sweet to leave me for a non-sweating skinny person. I am sweating so bad that I am standing in a pose called the “dripping dog” not the downward dog.Now some of you are saying well when you work out you sweat. Right? Wrong. Yoga is slow movement and controlled breathing. My yoga was painful movement and heavy breathing. I sounded like a stalker at a Star Trek convention using a fake communicator to harass the ladies. My towel was drenched by the end of the night and most of the ladies looked at me like they had just witnessed a manatee coming out of the water looking for his flipper for the first time. The women looked with compassion, pity and relief. They looked relieved that they did not have to go home with me, sleep in the same bed with me or just be in my general sweaty presence all together. The looked with pity that the manatee or sea cow would never be able to touch his toes or his flipper and they looked with compassion at my wife. Yoga is not for fat people.  The only reason I went is because I thought my wife asked me if I wanted to go get some “Yogurt” not Yoga. My bad.AH 

The weather today was incredible. I think the clouds were placed on the sky like pieces of white felt pressed upon a baby blue felt that stretched from the west to the east. The temperature was perfect because there was no humidity and the wind was blowing enough to keep reminding you that you are lucky to be experiencing this beauty. Yesterday tornadoes touched down nearby and the destruction was palpable. Today the blue sky stretched out forever. Incredible.AH 

Do you like broken things? The old saying is that even a broke clock is right twice a day. We must not get used to relationships, business, ourselves and our lives being broken. Broken things can still work but improperly. If a car is not aligned it will still run but the tires won’t last as long and the car will always pull right or left. Driving straight requires more effort when the car is not aligned properly. Take the time to put your “car” in the shop to get a proper alignment. For some of us we need a spiritual alignment, others it is a business alignment and some others require a relationship alignment. Don’t settle for broken things.AH 

Today is mother’s day. Mom this post is for you. I would like to acknowledge my mom. She has provided a limitless amount of support to me in my life. I will include a reference to all the typical accolades about moms because my mom has that down. What I would like to acknowledge most is the daily quiet prayers that my mother says for me. While I was in college, my mom would tell me that she prayed for me “everyday.” I know that she has continued that practice every day since. While I am dealing with something the Lord will remind me that my mom is praying for me. She does not pray for me to be something that I am not but for me to walk in the way of the Lord. What I want everyone to know about my mom is that she is an intercessor for me. She puts herself into the spiritual battlefield for me. While most mothers put requirements on their kids to be something they are not, my mom opens the supply lines of encouragement, hope, support, love and character. These supply lines can get closed by the challenges of life and the “troops” on the front line can end up starving from low “ammunition.” Mom, I love you for praying and interceding for me thus keeping me stocked with plenty of ammunition to live my life.  Happy Mothers Day.Albert 

Email, Fax, IM, letters. Can you pick the one that is not like the others?I will help you letters. These forms of data transfer can fall into two categories communication and information. There is a distinction between these things. Communication requires the other party to hear, listen and feel what the communicator is conveying. If you are informing someone then email, fax, IM are acceptable formats but they do not allow the intangible emotions, inflections and tones that talking to someone can afford. Letters are very formal and if you want to set an expectation with someone send a letter. Black ink against the white piece of paper provides permanence that electronic media cannot establish. If you want to communicate talk to someone. If you want to inform someone then use email, fax or im. If you want to establish something with someone put it in a letter. Remember the difference between communicating and informing.AH 

Choice is doing something with complete abandonment of the preconceived notions that hold us back. 

I have agreed to speak at an academic awards banquet on May 19th at my high school. At 5:05am, I was struck with what I would like to say to these young achievers. I want to tell them that most of the information that they have learned is useless. All the studying they have endured of math, English, dates, concepts and history is useless in and of itself. Have you actually learned from it? That is the question I want to throw in their face. Have they learned that their parents are probably right or have they learned that their parents are completely wrong?In other words, if you have read Shakespeare’s Hamlet and you know “What a piece of work is man” as a quote but you don’t know what Shakespeare was really talking about then you have missed the point of learning. Studying for a perfect SOL test or a 5 on the AP does not prove that you have learned anything. Shakespeare, Galileo and the other masters of the past explored uncharted territory trying to give us a map to answers that although feeble yet brilliant are merely suggestions to questions only God answers.  If the student has learned the old answers but is too scared to come up with new answers then the student has achieved conformity and nothing else.I would also like to tell them that they should be careful not to consider high school the peak. It is really just the start. It is up to them to formulate a new dream because the sand in this hour glass has emptied. Learning something about yourself and the world around you every day is the best remedy for taking your life too seriously. At 5:07am I realized that talk would be too existential.  I should just read a Dr. Seuss Poem and eat my chicken slyly holding inside my head the irony of life.  ”What a piece of work is man.”AH 

Sportscenter is the Eight Wonder of the World. I live in a house where sports are looked down upon. Fortunately for my family, I am not a huge sports fanatic but I think there would be constant family strife if Sportscenter did not exist. I wait for early Monday morning like a kid on Christmas Eve. I don’t worry about the missed games, moments, or information because I know that early Monday morning I am going to be able to watch and listen to everything without the interruptions of my family asking to watch the DVR of Dancing with the Stars. My boys at the desk are going to walk me through sports highlights - each clip a gift that I get to see unfold without interruption. Christmas comes every Monday morning. Thank you Sportscenter.AH 

I am not a man. If you looked at me you would think, “That is an overweight, middle aged, slightly insane man.” In reality I am a child. Here is why. A man does not play video games in the afternoon during his lunch break. A man does not hide during that hour to play a child’s video game. A man does not put his Blackberry next to the game console awaiting a call from a client to discuss the transaction the client is hoping to complete. Contrast is an understatement. I am a managing partner and a “successful” entrepreneur and I spent my lunch hour yesterday playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare by myself. Some might say that is sad. Others might say that it is immature. Here is what the Managing Partner Entreprenuer calls it  - An executive training Session in Team Building and Decision making analysis.  Anyone want to play?AH 

A car was a warranty such as a 5 year or 100,000 miles whichever occurs first. In other words, if the car makes it 5 years then the warranty expires if the 100k mile mark has not been achieved. If you drive that car into the ground and hit 100k miles in the first 3 years your warranty is void. I think I have hit my 100k miles because I am falling apart. My knees are moving but they are operating with torn acls and other ligament damage. My big toe attracted a celulitus infection which sounds like a plant disease and my right wrist is experiencing pain when I turn it. What is happening? My wife has always said that I am a little old man (she has said this to me since I was 15) so maybe my 100k warranty has been reached. I feel like an old Honda Accord with mismatched hub caps. The car still working but it is not pretty. Another thought is that my body is catching up with my mind. I have always felt old so at 35 maybe the two are converging. When my wife goes to the store I am going to tell her to some Depends just in case I get in a jam. It is tough getting old. AH 

Business has a fine line between emotionless action and dynamic production. This line must be clearer the more employees in the business. Employees require the predictability of systems so that time wasting indecision is eliminated therefore increasing profitability. Owners should create predictable outcomes given a future set of scenarios which allow for quicker decisions to run the business more efficiently. Another systems by-product is the affect it has on the employee’s feeling of empowerment and ownership in the overall purpose of the business. If an employee does not know the next step or if the next step changes on a whim then gross inefficiencies are created within an organization. An employee is left impotent and disengaged about his or her contribution to the greater good. Systems should allow for intelligent decisions to accomplish the ethos, pathos and purpose of the business without yielding to the “This is the way I do it” entrenching of employee entitlement. Systems should yield a clear path from start to finish while integrating all the necessary parts of your business from the receptionist to the janitor.  AH 

My wife is celebrating her 35 years on the planet on Sunday. She is one of the unsung heroes in the world. I sincerely believe that her best hopes, dreams and accomplishments are bottled up inside her. I will spend a lifetime waiting for them to overflow and cascade over the lucky ones who get to spend time with her. I have known her for a lifetime it seems now but I am always suprised when she lets me in to tour her mind. You won’t find a more clear, positive and hopeful place. My greatest joy has been her humor, candor, class, beauty, grace and wisdom. Most of the people focus on me because I am the loud mouth or the Horshack of the crowd. On my best day I could not compare to my lovely and incredible wife. I love her and count it all blessing for being able to experience her life. Happy Birthday Amy.

Everyone has 24 hours in a day. What I struggle with is making the right choices on what things to spend my time on so that results are generated exponentially. I experience a tremendous amount of guilt when my time is wasted. In other words when something new I am working on does not bring home the bacon for my wife and kids then I could look at this as a waste of time. I am trying to build a legacy for them but if I am not here now what good does all this work do if I am not here to spend time with them and enjoy it. Caution! Warning! You can’t get time back - it is precious. Don’t waste time.
AH

WARNING! Don’t get caught up in the hype of short sales. When a bank is moving a house by taking less on the mortgage than what is owed this is a short sale. Seller receives no funds and many times the only person that benefits is a owner occupying buyer. Investors are getting in the game but before you get into a short sale you better have the buyer ready to go or an exit strategy that assumes a flat appreciation for the next 2 years.AH