Are You Serious??!!!

There are times when I hear a news story, and I actually choke on my coffee at how incredibly improbable the facts appear to be. Today was one of those days...

Apparently, a man is suing a casino for "letting him gamble", even though he's addicted to it.

This made me look into the story further, and apparently he's not the first person to try this... it's happened in the past. And I find it appalling.

Is it unscrupulous, and perhaps unethical, for the casino to serve you if they knowingly take advantage of your addiction? Maybe. Should they be held responsible by the government, perhaps shut down, for operating in such a way? Quite possibly.

Should they repay you because you failed to take responsibility for your actions?

Not a chance.

Nobody put a gun to this man's head. Nobody threatened his family. So an addiction has now become a "Get out of jail free" card? Hell, no.

As a society, we need to have options for people to access for treatment. We need to have ways for them to help themselves... but this is the key. They must want to help themselves. If they never suffer any consequences for their actions, then why would they ever want to get better?

We've created a society of users and enablers, where people are either blaming someone or something else for their problems, or they're accepting this as a reason to let them off of the responsibility for the inevitable aftermath they leave in their wake.

We can't want it more than they do. It's that simple.

~Guy

.cyclebetes.

What is Cyclebetes?
It began in 2007 with one promise, one Champion and it spread. It began with a promise that a father made to his 12 year old daughter.
Vancouver businessman Kyle Balagno promised his daughter Taylor he would do everything in his power to help find a cure for her juvenile (type one) diabetes before her 18th birthday. He had 6 years.
That commitment spawned Team H2V, a 5 man team who cycled across Canada at break neck speed in September 2007. They made the epic ride in just 8 days, set a Guinness World Record and raised $900,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and millions of media hits.
The journey of Team H2V was remarkable and inspiring to all Canadians. The simple goal that fuelled the team was the desire to do….something that hadn’t been done…..something big.
Cyclebetes is the legacy of Team H2V - built on themes of community, responsibility, leadership and promise. Cyclebetes gives Canadians the opportunity to become Champions in four events that will take place across the country with donations benefiting the JDRF.
This past weekend, Rockridge Secondary school hosted their second annual 24hr indoor spin-a-thon. The Accu-Chek Cyclebetes Secondary Spin-a-Thon is an opportunity for Canadian secondary students to get active in their communities and develop leadership capabilities by organizing and participating in 24 hour community spin relays. Throughout the 24hrs, we had 40 Innovative Fitness customers participating by spinning and fundraising for the JDRF. Fri
We drove up to the school after work, parked in the lot around 5:40pm and unloaded spinners and bikes. When er walked into the gym we came to a table with students who signed us in a guided us to our spin area. The gym was buzzing with people and bikes. There was music and motion everywhere. Our spin area was alive with riders. There must have been 5 or 6. We got set up and spent 2hrs spinning with a great group. Chatting it up, people/movie watching and drinking water. The time flew by. I made it home, had a light dinner and I was in bed by 10.SatMy alarm went off at 6am and I was spinning by 7. The gym was still going. There were people who looked very tired and lots of fresh riders already zipping along. With 2hrs of riding under my belt, I had my fill. But the day was far from over for the spin-a-thon.
throughout the 24hrs

The entire event had over 700 people walk through their doors over those 24hrs and raised over $110,000 dollars with funds still coming in. This was a very successful event and everyone who participated should be very proud of what they helped accomplish.

My First Trail Race

I get such a thrill when I see a customer who accomplishes an event for the first time. There agonizing faces as they are running the course, which are quickly turned into celebration faces once they cross that finish line and receive high fives and congratulations from others.

This weekend this is exactly what happened to some of our customers. For some, this was there first event of the season in which they had started training for in January and for others they were doing this to gain 20 points in the Nutrition Challenge. If we had not challenged our customers to take part in the nutrition challenge or challenged them at the beginning of the year to train for this race, most of these customers would still be coming to do a gym workout with perhaps little motivation and would of not experience what it is like to be involved in something outside of the gym.

I think the biggest importance and lesson from this weekend events, is to be constantly challenging the customers to do outside of the gym workouts. Understand that we know people have different realities but as soon as you can make them see the light, that spending a beautiful Sunday morning running around the North Shore Trails is far better than sitting at home watching the morning news. The customers that participated in the events this weekend not only received massive support from Innovative but they also establish new relationships with fellow customers.

This is what it is all about – focusing on a customer’s physical sphere by challenging them to do an event and with that challenge and the accomplishments comes, emotional, spiritual, and social victories.

The Bundle of Sticks

A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves. No words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.

One day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the Sons was moping in a surly manner, heasked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks. Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try tobreak it. But although each one tried his best, none was able todo so.

The Father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his Sons to break one by one. This they did very easily.

“My Sons,” said the Father, “do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you? But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.”

Moral: To value the importance of teamwork, we have to appreciate the value of every individual.

Comfortable being uncomfortable

As some of you know I was invited to attend the Canadian-Korean Businessman's Association Annual General Meeting dinner last night as a guest of a customer. I agreed to go because I thought it'd be a great opportunity for me to get out and network and hopefully meet some other business minded people in the Korean community. Although many of the people in attendance were a LOT older I was able to have some great conversations and meet some different people from very different industries. This in itself was a big accomplishment for me as I continue to try and become more outgoing and engage people in conversations that I'd normally not talk to.

Also, just to share with you the benefits of stepping outside of our comfort zones, and not just in the physical sphere, I happened to randomly bump into an old roommate and co-worker of mine that I worked with in Korea for the World Cup. It just so happens that he's the Commercial Account Manager for the Prospera Credit Union branch in South Granville and as we got to talking about Langley, and our plans to franchise there, he told us that he might be able to help. Although Guy and I have to still set up a meeting with him and it might not really pan out it's just another opportunity and path that would've never been brought to us had I not gone to this dinner.

The reason for sharing all of this is just to highlight that A) the lessons that we learn and growth we experience isn't just relative to what we're doing at work B) we must continuously challenge ourselves because that's when we'll experience growth (like Curtis said, "We don't know what we don't know") C) there are A LOT of benefits that come from being able to "story tell" and share the experience of what we do and why we're so passionate about what we do.

AND....to cap it all off I may have a referral for Curtis in White Rock so all in all it was a great night.

- Paul -

Get Up, Stand Up

Stand up for what you believe in and be passionate about something. Anything. I’m going to connect two stories that were in the news over the past couple days and conclude with a message. I would like to preface this post by saying that the topic is a bit dark and perhaps controversial but I feel that it’s worth discussion.

#1 “Landmark Khmer Rouge Trial Starts”

This article covers the trial of Pol Pot’s chief torturer who is being charged with crimes against humanity for his involvement as a leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the 1970’s. The Khmer Rouge is infamous for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (or 1/5 of the country's total population) under its regime through execution, torture, sexual abuses and starvation. This story really struck a chord with me because I have been to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, and have seen the Killing Fields and S-21 prison where the torture and executions took place. It absolutely boggles my mind to think that human beings are capable of such barbaric acts and to stand at the sites where these offenses occurred was chilling to say the least. My stop in Cambodia was by far the most powerful and influential experience in my life. Just 30 years after the country was a living hell, the Cambodian people were the most kind, welcoming and optimistic people I have ever met. There is one lasting image in my mind (pictured below) which will never fade. It is of the ‘fields’ which hold the mass graves of the victims. It may be hard to see but there are children playing in the background on a tree to the right. They were laughing and playing, impervious to the graveyard which they played upon. They were full of hope.

#2 “Police Clash With G20 Protestors”

Thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of London, England ahead of the G20 Summit in angry protest. World leaders arrived for the summit where they will strive to agree upon measures to tackle the worst financial crisis in decades. While every single Summit meeting in history has been met with large scale protests, this one is different. Much of the anger is directed at banks and other institutions who are being accused of contributing to the global collapse of the economy. People are upset about capitalism, corporations and most importantly greed. Conflict can be ugly because it often involves violence and destruction. In my opinion the most effective and powerful protests are non-violent yet incessant. But sometimes it is necessary to stand up for what you believe in at all costs. I respect the protestors who took the time to take to the streets as a sign of disapproval. Somebody needs to convey the message that we aren’t going to put up with it anymore. Otherwise there would be no reason for the G20 leaders to seek resolutions with a sense of urgency.

Significance

Now I am not Jewish and I wasn’t in Europe during the 1930’s and 40’s so I have no right opining about the Holocaust. But I came across a quote a few weeks ago that I thought was very interesting. Ian Kershaw (noted for his objective biography of Adolf Hitler) is a British historian of 20th century Germany who said, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' It’s a sobering idea to think that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite; they just had to be apathetic. This seems to be a theme when it comes to large scale social atrocities. Consider slavery in the United States, genocide in Africa, or mass murder in Cambodia. These movements were able to happen and persist because the masses didn’t speak up. People may have felt that something was amiss but nothing was done about it in the initial stages before it was too late. The financial crisis that our world is currently facing is certainly not at the same level as genocide. But I feel that we have found ourselves in a position where we all need to let our governments and the world’s financial institutions know that we aren’t happy, we’re passionate about not getting screwed over and that we believe in truth, honesty and hope. Don't be apathetic...

Accept the Consequences

Those of you who know me and have read my story, know that when I was younger I tended to bristle at authority. If a person in a position of "power" said something that didn't immediately comply with my narrow perspective, I immediately dismissed their opinion and mounted my own little rebellion (obvious, if not overt). Although I've been working on changing this (since more often than not it simply turns into outright bull-headed stubbornness), it would probably not surprise most that, in fact, I'm against too much government interference in the day-to-day running of business.

There are, however, exceptions - and the auto industry is a great example. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, was essentially told to step down by the Obama administration. This raised the ire of many, including his opponent in the election, John McCain. My thoughts?

Damn right they should get involved.

They are sitting with their hands out, asking for billions of dollars in taxpayers money - but they don't think that the people giving them the money should be able to set any conditions?

Wrong.

They have two options - take it, or leave it. Yes, it may seem like they have no choice but to take it or else they'll see the entire company collapse, but they were part of the reason that it would up in that position in the first place... the fact of the matter is that Wagoner is just one of the pieces of the puzzle, but someone has to be held accountable...

And the captain should always go down with his ship - or at least make the sacrifice necessary to keep it afloat. Bottom line - the only unfortunate part of this is that someone else had to force it to happen.

Remember - Wagoner was one of three CEOs who went to Washington with their hands out asking for help... but flew there in private jets.

The time's come to pay the piper.

~Guy