A Happy Home is Filled with Love and Laughter: Secrets of Success

Secrets of Success

This is BJ writing (yes, it is a miracle!) At my work, each employee has the opportunity to do a presentation called "Secrets of Success" where we can talk about things that have helped us find or be successful. You can talk about whatever you want really, and there is no set format. Along with the presentation, they have us do a write up on what we presented. I figured this would be a great place to post that write up.

While all of our endeavors in life may not be successful, we can find “secrets of success” in everything that we do. Looking over the many experiences of my life, I’ve had so many opportunities to succeed and many teachers of success. I would like to share just a small number of the experiences and observations from my life that have taught me about success.

One of my passions in life is sports. I enjoy participating in and being a fan of sports. During high school, I joined the football team. I was by no means a gifted football player, and had to compete with some very talented players in order to play on the team. However, as I gave everything I had, my talent increased and I became a starter on the team over players who were far more gifted than me, but who didn’t put in the work to succeed. I also learned the secret (or lesson) of hard work from the University of Utah football team in 2008-2009 when they beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. From these and many other sporting experiences, I’ve learned that hard work helps people be successful.

From the time that I was 8 years old, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in Scouting in some manner. There are so many opportunities to succeed and secrets to be learned. One thing that I’ve learned from Scouting is that we must accomplish something in order to succeed. The main purpose of the Scouting program is to help boys succeed at a time in their lives when they don’t otherwise see many successes. While it may be obvious that we must accomplish something to succeed, it is one of my secrets of success.

As a developer, I spend a fair amount of time with my computer and it has helped to make me successful in my career and life. One of the many ways that it has helped me is by helping me to stay organized and simplify the things of my life. In order to succeed, we need to simplify.

Most who present on their secrets of success would agree that family has a large role in their success. I am no different. The many lessons of my family could easily fill up this page with successes I’ve learned from them. However, there are three that have been more influential than any others. First, I have a twin brother who I have always competed with. That competition has pushed me to be the very best me and I would not be the person I am today, or yesterday, without someone to push myself.

When I was 5 years old, my parents were divorced and I moved away with my Dad. Many have seen the devastation that comes from broken homes, but I’ve learned from this that sometimes our greatest failures can lead to some of our greatest successes. My dad was remarried and I learned to accept 5 new siblings and a new step mom. I learned to communicate with and care for a Mom who lived at a distance from me. Never in my life have I succeeded at something as difficult as allowing a group of people to become my family.

Although a failure lead to a great success, it can’t build lasting success. My family has also taught me how important happiness is to success. When I accomplish anything in life, I think of my wife and daughter and how the happiness they bring to me push me forward to all my great successes.

Speaking of my wife brings me memories of how much I love dancing. I always have, and probably always will. I am by no means a great dancer, but a passionate dancer. My wife and I met country swing dancing and it taught me how important passion is to your success in whatever you do.

Finally, many of my great secrets of success I learned from the Italian people. I was able to serve my mission there between 2004 and 2006. My time away from things I was familiar with taught me that as we appreciate the things we have, we learn how to better use them. Most importantly, the Italians taught me that in order to succeed we need to remember our past successes. Although Italy is a great nation, much of its current success is based on its history, and the great things that have happened before.

From Scouting to Italy and everywhere in between that my life has taken me, I have learned there are principles of success in all that we do. What a wonderful opportunity that I have had to succeed and I will continue to seek for and implement additional secrets of success as they come my way.