About Carl Creasman



Carl Creasman's passion for communicating and challenging people to live well has taken him from his rural Tennessee hometown to speaking events across the country and around the world.


Carl's unique insights are informed by his experiences as an author, historian, pastor, and life coach.


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July 4, 2018 at 9:42 am, by Carl

Been a while since I’ve posted much, but today being July 4th, I felt compelled to look again at George Washington’s Farewell Address.  I urge you to read the entire thing.  Realize as you read, that it contains the ideas of two of the leading opponents of the day: Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.  Madison had helped Washington four years earlier craft an early draft, when the President wanted to retire after his first term.  He saved that draft after he agreed to serve again, but now gave it to Hamilton to edit.  Of course Washington made sure that what was written reflected his own views, but it is nice to know the other two men, strong opponents of one another, had a hand.

 

I offer that in 2018, Washington’s warning is still apt for us.

 

He starts with his hopes “that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence”:

  • that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; 
  • that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; 
  • that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; 
  • that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

 

His warnings against what will harm this prayer of hope speak to his own experience from the previous 8 years.  Thus, first he urges the people to preserve the unity of support for our Constitutional government.  

 

He writes, it is “now dear to you” BUT “from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.”  In other words, groups and forces will lie to you and do whatever they can to convince you to weaken your support for the government.

 

For Washington, our unity “it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness.”  And “the palladium of your political safety and prosperity.”  

 

So, you should be “watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.”

 

“Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections.”

 

“In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.”

 

The Lead Danger to this Unity?  Party, or what at the time was known as “faction.”

 

So, first Washington reiterates to support the government as it is the elected and chosen reflection of The Constitution.  “This government…has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty….the Constitution…is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”

 

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community”

 

He urges caution against quick alteration to The Constitution.  

 

It is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to [the Government], but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles….One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system.”  

 

So, “In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion….”   Avoid being swayed by what sounds popular for the present moment; trust our history, our habits and our previous experience.

 

Washington, still harping on the dangers of political parties or factions, believes it is in such political parties that attempts to weaken the government or negatively alter the Constitution will arise.   There lies the danger.

 

“the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally….exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.”

 

Why?  “It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

 

How do we hope for a positive future outcome?  

 

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them….It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”

 

Washington brings his ideas to conclusion by focusing on a last danger…how the country interacts with other nations.  

 

For Washington the key is “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all” and “just and amicable feelings towards all [nations] should be cultivated.”  At the same time “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

 

Thus “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world”..and here he means of the military type.  He enjoins us to keep commercial interactions, and in commerce, again “our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences”

 

As we head into the latter part of 2018, and as the Great Crisis is either directly upon us or seemingly nearby, I pray you determine to put Washington’s hopes and warnings into your actions and words in the days ahead.

January 13, 2018 at 10:44 am, by Carl

[note to the reader…it has been almost a full year since I wrote or published anything; I have been in a season of reflection and pausing in my writing has been a part of that.  I am not certain still if I will start in earnest again, but the following was burning inside of me in the light of recent events in the USA during the latter few weeks of 2017 and the first weeks of 2018]

 

Moral authority cannot simply be claimed (which is easy) but must be earned through clear demonstration over a lifetime.

 

We find ourselves in this sad moment when various personalities attempt to speak to the nation with moral authority when everyone watching knows that these people represent the worst bastions of a lack of any moral authority.  How tragic, how bitterly hilarious to see members of Hollywood preach to the nation about equality and race when they have spent the last several decades, if not longer, exhibiting the very sin they complain about.  Worse, in their case, they remonstrate yet have all along been masters of their own fate.  Hollywood and its members have both the actual reality of the objection as we notice continuously their failure to choose women or people of various races for directors or producers, failing to pay equitably for what is clearly an equal job AND AS THE SAME TIME ALSO make films that promote and encourage the very behavior for which they now protest.

 

The country finds itself in a morass of its own making, having long ago abandoned any shred of a hint to value truth, running quickly to the comfort of relativism in which no one can ever be wrong.  Now in the latter years of the second decade of the 21st century, we run headlong into a mirror and we are horrified by what we see.

 

Thus, we see the tragic hilarity of various spokespeople, supposedly of “the people,” in the two most elitist, exclusionary enclaves of the land, Hollywood and DC, trying to speak with a moral authority.  Sure…it is possible that a few people in both gated worlds may have some morality, having chosen to eschew the relativism and raunchiness of their peers.  Yet, overall, when the evidence of what they have produced is viewed and examined, their lifetime of work is abysmal and lacking in terms of earning a moral authority.

 

What we need now are voices that can exhibit the moral leadership we so desperately need.  Those voices probably won’t be found in either Hollywood or DC, and we should not look there nor necessarily listen to people from there in vain hopes.  Instead, the leadership we need will be found in the women and men in the cities and villages of the land.  Look there and listen.

 

Yes, it is nice that finally, after the blistering white hot glare of the spotlight, that some in Hollywood and DC, as well as big business and academia, are finally speaking out.  But their next steps should be to humble themselves, be quiet and simply start living out what they are proclaiming.  Make movies and TV shows that honor this new worldview you claim; pass laws based on truth, not relativism, and in both places, demand a civility and wholesomeness of those in your power enclave.  In the meanwhile, go sit in silence at the feet of those with true moral authority, and learn.

September 20, 2017 at 7:22 am, by Carl

“Human nature cannot be studied in cities except at a disadvantage–a village is the place.  There you can know your man inside and out–in a city you but know his crust; and his crust is usually a lie.”

 

As someone raised in a village, but has lived the last 24 years in a city, I think I know what Twain means here.  Its possible that today, with over 60% of US citizens living in cities (but only taking up about 4% of the available land in the nation), Twain’s point might still work out that we can learn deeply about each other.  In fact, since 80% of the nation lives in urban areas, we need to hope his truth can be shifted somehow.

 

He is suggesting that in highly dense population areas, it is easier to wear a mask.  The opportunity for more intimate interaction drops with the more people one lives with.  It’s easier to hide, to show only a shell (what he calls “crust”) of yourself.  You rarely see the same people at the grocery store (employee or shopper); at the mall you are just a moving piece of flotsam in a sea of people.  You might get to know the mechanic or your insurance agent, but even there you might just as easily pop into a setting that has a revolving door of workers.  Even our churches rarely have any community connection, replacing the shared life together idea for more of the “Christian Mall” concept.

 

Thus, I am rarely known nor do I know another.   But in a village….well, there you “can know [your neighbor] inside and out.”  I know we are not going to just randomly leave the cities and return to the rural landscape of America.  Heck, people in those places may not let someone like me move back.  But I think we can take steps to recover the intimacy of the village; we simply have to decide to invest in the lives of those around us.

August 2, 2017 at 7:02 am, by Carl

“Reality is what is there; truth is a reflection of reality.”

June 7, 2017 at 7:31 am, by Carl

“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only think that makes possibly any love of goodness or joy worth having.”

May 18, 2017 at 8:10 am, by Carl

Last month, Ross Douthat published a strong article in The New York Times in which he argues that the US cities, which are predominantly liberal, should be broken up.  It was a surprising argument both in its direction and in who printed it (the typically very liberal NY Times).  But there it was in the infamous Grey Lady (or is it “Gray Lady”).  Take a look at what he says:

 

for many of their inhabitants, particularly the young and the wealthy, our liberal cities are pleasant places in which to work and play. But if they are diverse in certain ways they are segregated in others, from “whiteopias” like Portland to balkanized cities like D.C. or Chicago. If they are dynamic, they are also so rich — and so rigidly zoned — that the middle class can’t afford to live there and fewer and fewer kids are born inside their gates. If they are fast-growing it’s often a growth intertwined with subsidies and “too big to fail” protection; if they are innovation capitals it’s a form of innovation that generates fewer jobs than past technological advance.

Why does this matter?  Well, Douthat says he is trying to make suggestions for a stronger or better America in the wake of the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to the Presidency.  In that vein, Douthat thus says:

 

So has the heyday of these meritocratic agglomerations actually made America greater? I think not. In the age of the liberal city — dating, one might argue, to the urban recovery of the 1990s — economic growth has been slack, political dysfunction worse, and technological progress slow outside the online sector. Liberalism has become more smug and out-of-touch; conservatism more anti-intellectual and buffoonish.

What to do?  Well, ultimately he suggests simply breaking up the cities.  Sadly, we know that has as much likelihood as demanding the Internet be shut down due to its various ills to our culture.  So, rather than talking specifically about the cities changing (though, to be clear, I agree with Douthat that we would be stronger if the various major companies and institutions in the major cities started putting aspects of their business or work into the rural countryside thus forcing movement of citizens from the cities to the country), perhaps we simply note that the key is to force yourself out of sameness.

 

Part of our challenge is that the human is a communal animal, but one that leans toward natural affinity.  We like being around others like us.  That affinity can come out of natural aspects (race is the most notable here), but also can come from nurture aspects such as common likes (types of music or hobbies for instance).  So, we quite naturally being around others who are most like us, who like the things we like.  That won’t change.

 

What CAN change, though, is to take the determined step to engaging others who aren’t like you.  Start small.  Find the person in your classroom or office who, while perhaps not exactly like you (or doesn’t seem to present interest in the same hobbies as you), also isn’t a jerk to be around.  And you know…most people aren’t jerks.  So, you have lots of options to pick from.  Ask that person to eat lunch with you or simply ask them about their weekend.  Don’t judge, make a face or have to counter their statements…just listen, give a smile and perhaps offer your own thoughts on the movie or the sport that they enjoyed.  The point is simply to engage in the lives of other people.

 

That won’t necessarily make us a better country immediately.  What it will do, though, is remind you that each person you meet is a human of worth…and that even those who don’t agree with you aren’t necessarily crazy, rude or mean.  They just see the world differently than you. And that is key….we find our best solutions when we realize that we don’t have a monopoly on the best ideas, and our best ideas can become even stronger when different views from ours are brought out.

May 17, 2017 at 7:46 am, by Carl

“There always comes a time in history when the man who dares to say that two plus two equals four is punished with death…And the issue is not a matter of what reward or what punishment will be the outcome of that reasoning. The issue is simply whether two plus two equals four.  For those of our townspeople who were then risking their lives, the decision they had to make was simply whether or not they were in the midst of a plague and whether or not it was necessary to struggle against it.”

 

From The Plague, Camus’ writing seems connected to his experience during World War II, living in the French village Le Chambon-sur-Lignon where many villagers simply refused to turn over or expose Jews to the Nazi death program.  While Camus never directly said his writing was a metaphor for the war experience, there is a clear connection.  At its root then comes the Biblical question about “who is my neighbor”. (Luke 10:25-37).  For the people of Le Chambon, as well the villagers of The Plague, the decision was that those around are the neighbors and they need love and protection.   Or, as Camus put it, we are “obligated by the very fact of our existence” to one another.

May 16, 2017 at 7:38 am, by Carl

My daughter, Logan graduated from Denison University on Saturday.  Hard to believe that the conclusion has come, but now she is out into the real world.  The concept of adulting is now her challenge.  I know she will do it well.  Of course she has many choices and decisions ahead of her, but we all do.  First, she needs to celebrate.

 

Celebrating a win is a vital thing.  Winning is contagious, but it can be hard to catch if we don’t really take the time to celebrate.  For most of us, the task we undertake involves challenge and hard work.  So, when you accomplish completion, you should take time to enjoy the moment.  Graduations are a part of that moment…pomp and circumstance, flowers and presents, photographs and big smiles.

 

Celebrating is key…but you can’t get stuck there.  You can’t just stop moving.  Life doesn’t stop…neither can you.  Its time then to move to the next thing.  In Logan’s case, after moving home and getting some good rest, it will be time to start looking for her next move.  She will.  She’s got a plan and is eager to work it.  That’s important.  Far too often we get lost, either in idle stumbling or perhaps worse, just stuck in “the now” of life…and usually a life we don’t really enjoy.

 

So, out she will go.  Out into the real world.  Its scary…or it is for Daddy…but she’s ready.   She’s very bright.  Better, she is a good person.  She invests in others, even when they don’t return the love.  She is aware of the outcast and the lonely, and thus reaches out to share life with that person.  Boy, is that in short supply in the world today.  Want to make a difference out in the real world?  Start to notice “the other” in the world around you.

 

She will face challenges, set-backs, disappointments.  I know I have.  Everyone I know has.  Sometimes the disappointment comes in the work world.  Other times is in personal relationships.  Or times of great loss.  The storms will come.  The question is not “if they will come” but rather how you will respond on the other side.  There is a victory in knowing that while life is hard, you keep showing up.  Putting in your best work, bringing all of yourself to the task.

 

As she goes, she will need to always remember that being a person of excellence is rare.  Far too many come with expectations, thinking someone owes them something.  Or, if they don’t really believe someone owes them…they still act entitled, unwilling to engage in the work or be a decent person.  Logan does both—work hard at the task and is a decent person.  She learns her lines.  She shows up on time.  She keeps a smile on her face even if others are missing, late, lazy or unproductive.

 

Lastly, she knows that she needs community.  History teaches us so many lessons; one of the most vital is that rare is the success that happens in full isolation.  Yes, I know, that many great inventors did so alone.  That’s not what I am talking about here.  I don’t mean the success of an isolated savant, but instead that to Live Well we need others.  I was speaking just today with one of my peers at Valencia, and unprompted, she reinforced this lesson….she said that she was teaching her college-aged daughter that it is the relationships you make along the way, the community you invest in, that will be key in being successful “out in the real world.”

 

My friend is right.

 

Logan knows that too.  I am so proud of you, and excited to see the next steps that unfold before you.

 

Congratulations my sweet girl!

May 11, 2017 at 7:30 am, by Carl

In the Sunday April 9 Parade Magazine, I noted an answer that the famous brilliant Marilyn von Savant provided to a question in her ongoing column called “Ask Marilyn.”  The question wasn’t one that tried to tap into Ms. von Savant’s legendary intelligence, but rather more of a data question.  She was asked:  What percent of the total amount of individual federal income taxes is paid by the wealthiest Americans?”

 

For her answer, she consulted Pew Research.  Marilyn wrote the following:

 

In 2014, households with incomes of $250,000 or more accounted for 2.7 percent of the returns filed. Together, they paid about 51.6 percent of the $1.4 trillion in income tax the federal government collected that year. Their average tax rate was 25.7 percent.

Households with incomes below $50,000 accounted for 62.3 percent of the returns. Collectively, they paid about 5.7 percent of the total amount of income tax collected by the federal government. Their average tax rate was 4.3 percent.

I was surprised.  Of course I hadn’t looked previously, but I would have guessed that they would have provided a lower percentage.  If nothing else, as a fan of the Fair Tax, I have to admit that the rich people pay a high percentage of the total given to the government.  But as I read and pondered, I was brought back to a key concept of the Founders of the country.  No…I wasn’t thinking that we had rebelled against taxes, which some like to tout as if to say we should never pay any taxes.  The Founders did not believe that, and from the first days of our government (the first one), the Articles of Confederation, citizens were paying taxes.  No…it wasn’t an Income Tax (that’s another constitutional amendment we should repeal), but it was more taxes on goods just like the Fair Tax would be.  Still, they paid taxes.

 

No…the thing the Founders held as a key concept was that you didn’t want to live with an empowered, strong central government.  And, the way that you empower any government is by giving it money.  Hence, the idea was to give the government as low amount of taxes as possible.  Clearly, today, the amount we would need is far higher than in 1790.  And, the percentage would be higher…meaning, we live in a different world with needs and issues that the Founders did not confront…and I personally believe there is a need for more taxes than the Founders would have asked for.  I mean, Jefferson arrived as the Third President and set about slashing taxes and expenditures for the very point of eliminating the potential ill of the government having too much money…and thus too much power.  Today, though, even if a Jefferson arrived to slash taxes and government spending, there are things at both the national and local levels that we need or expect the government to handle that weren’t true 200 years ago.

 

BUT…that being said, in all the consternation today about government and its roll, as the current leaders wrestle with spending, budget bills and healthcare plans, the fact that our government gets a lot of money from taxes is clear.  And, I would offer that our problem isn’t that we don’t have enough money as a nation.  Instead, we probably have too much that comes to the Federal Government.  In that, the leaders of the past 50 years had used the money poorly, just as the Founders feared, to create programs or benefit certain classes of people living in certain districts or certain states.  Along the way, the Federal government has grown increasingly more powerful…something most people note and usually don’t like.  Yet, suggest cutting taxes and the whining begins quickly as the suggestion comes that we won’t have enough money to do things.

 

We have enough money.  The Federal Government gets too much money.  Like with many things, our issue is a spiritual one, something we don’t like to talk about.  As a people, we are addicted to ease and luxury.  We think things like the Internet, air conditioning, food provided at grocery stores or megaplexes showing the latest movies are necessities.  As we race after more and more things, working longer hours to have money to buy things we don’t need (and as Tyler Durden said, “The things you own end up owning you.”), we lose sight of the fact that we are already rich.

 

Maybe the rich people should pay more.  Actually, the Fair Tax crowd will tell you that under their plan, rich people WILL pay more because they always buy new things.  But even under our current plan, maybe those making $250k need to cough up even more.  It won’t make us happier as a nation.  It won’t solve our issues.  The issue isn’t “not enough money.”  We are freaking rich as it is.  Our issue is a spiritual one, and higher taxes won’t fix that.

May 10, 2017 at 7:40 am, by Carl

“We must here return for a moment to the position that precedes the suppression of democratic institutions and the creation of a totalitarian regime.  In this stage it is the general demand for quick and determined government action that is the dominating element in the situation, dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action’s sake the goal.  It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough “to get things done” who exercises the greatest appeal.  “Strong” in this sense means not merely a numerical majority–it is the ineffectiveness of parliamentary majorities with which people are dissatisfied. What they will seek is somebody with such solid support as to inspire confidence that he can carry out whatever he wants.”

 

Hayek wrote this in 1944 for the excellent economic book The Road to Serfdom, but he could have written this in the past two decades of US history.  Of course, he wasn’t simply writing about us, but rather looking at the historical evidence on human nature.  From the time of the Greeks and Romans, introducing Democracy and Republic (two DIFFERENT governing styles…yet both centered on a form of “government of the people”), we’ve seen that most often people are drawn to the speed of decision rather than the slow process of compromise once anyone brings in more than a few voices to the decision.

 

Yet, as we look at the USA in the 2000s, sadly we see exactly what Hayek warns against.  This grew into a loud crescendo under President Obama as more and more of his followers wanted him simply to act.  And, at a few moments, act he did to loud cheers…and helping move our Republic toward further destruction.  Now, President Trump’s supporters equally want him to act and move, wanting “action for actions sake.”  We can only now sit back and watch as the Democrats first led us here and it seems the Republicans are determined to push us even further.  In the end, when we elect…or allow to take over…”someone with such solid support as to inspire confidence that he can carry out whatever he wants,” we can only look in the mirror with sadness to realize that it was us to encouraged such a conclusion.

May 9, 2017 at 7:56 am, by Carl

Last week the spring semester concluded and already a new one has begun.  It’s a quick turn-around.  In both instances though I confront students looking for their path forward in life.  The students concluding are hoping that they passed the class in order to take the next step.  Those who started with me on Monday have come to the term believing that they need this class for the events on their horizon.  In both cases, there is a warning of potential over-planning.

 

It’s a tough balance to find.  I’ve written and spoken for years about the need for plans, to goal set, to lay out a path with strategic vision and then go down that road.  It is something I believe in, something I think God has granted us as humans…the need to plan ahead.  There is wisdom in saving for a purchase or discerning the best time to start a home add-on or even figuring out when is the right time to leave for a vacation drive.

 

And yet, what that wisdom can twist into is the tyranny of over-planning leading to a person becoming trapped in constant worry about missing the right door, the right moment. I’ve seen students withdraw from a class that they were passing because they have determined through over-analysis that if they don’t make a higher grade, then they can’t go forward in their dream (rarely is this true).  Worse, many just end up getting stuck through a feeling of failure that they can’t find the path.

 

In this, they miss one of the most important lessons of how to Live Well.  The lesson is that “Life Unfolds Before You.”  What I mean is that as you go through life, you have no idea what events, opportunities, challenges or difficulties that will happen before you.  In that moment, when life unfolds with the “next thing,” moments you could never have planned for will be there, in that moment, waiting for you.   This is one reason why I counsel many to understand that the most important thing you should do as you go through whatever is next is build relationships.  So many times in life what ends up being the key factor is a relationship with another person.  Sometimes that is a key ally who can write you a letter of recommendation.  Other times it is a friend who knows just the right person to call.  There are times when it comes to light that the contact I am working with knows me through another person.  In all of those moments, the vital thing is not your resume but rather the words of the previously build relationship.

 

Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani, provides a wonderful lesson of how life just unfolds.  In 1994, Ulukaya first came to the USA as an immigrant looking to find his way.  After changing Colleges, Chobani provided a written essay on “any subject he knew well.”  As a young man growing up in easter Turkey, Ulukaya knew how to make cheese, so he wrote about that.  Unbeknown to the student, his professor owned a small farm in upstate NY.  The professor asked Ulukaya to come visit for a weekend to teach her how to make cheese.  He took her up on the offer, and discovered that the USA was far more than large urban cities.  He switched schools from his current one in NYC to SUNY Albany, and convinced his former professor to give him a job working on the farm, from making cheese to cleaning out the stables.

 

From that small beginning, in 2002, Ulukaya, using seed money from friends and families, started a small company to make feta cheese.  It was successful enough that a few years later, he was able to purchase a recently closed Kraft plant.  Chobani yogurt was born, and another USA economic business success story happened.  But did you catch the key moment?

 

He didn’t come to the US with a plan to make yogurt.  He wasn’t in school in NYC for cheese making.  Life unfolded before him, and in that moment, the most important things wasn’t his plan and not even his strengths or skill set.  It was the relationship with the professor.  Imagine for a moment that during the class, Ulukaya had been a jerk.  Or maybe had been openly dismissive of his professor.  Or maybe only came to class some of the time, or spent the entire class texting…generally floating through life rather than positively engaging it?  Do you really think the professor would have reached out to ask about the cheese-making, let alone invite him to the farm for a weekend?  I can promise you the answer is no.

 

But instead, Ulukaya was being a positive person, engaged in the class and aware that building relationships was as important as learning the subject material.  Today, he is a billionaire (which isn’t the point) because of how aware he was that life can unfold in front of him.  Notice how he didn’t sit back once he saw the opportunity.  He moved quickly to leave NYC and transfer upstate.  Realize, he didn’t transfer because he had plans to open the cheese factory…that idea came later.  Instead, he simply noted that here, in upstate NY, was an opportunity to have a job in something he was familiar with, helping someone (The professor) that he obviously liked enough to engage in the first weekend visit.

 

I speak to so many who feel like they are trapped.  And I don’t mean older people who have a mortgage or children that might possibly tie them to an area or a current job.  You are not trapped.  You too can move to upstate NY…or to some other state.  You can transition in another direction than you are currently heading.  You can start a different job.  And you don’t have to have previously planned for the moment.

 

Life Unfolds!  Let it.  In the meantime, as you are going, don’t forget that one of the most important things will be the relationships you cultivate.  Be one of the rare ones.  Be trustworthy.  Be pleasant.  Be interested in others.  Be devoted to always doing your best work.  You do that and as life unfolds, you will Live Well.

 

May 3, 2017 at 7:04 am, by Carl

“Education is to train a child to make distinctions, to know the difference between what is good and evil, beautiful and ugly, sacred and profane.  The intellectual efforts require a corresponding moral foundation, one that entails discipline, deferral and even renunciation.  Formed in such a way, the child will have a secure sense of his own worth, and so have the generosity of spirit to recognize the merits of others.”