David Jay, awesome photographer and king of referrals keeps me on my toes with his AMAZING attitude towards photography. He's adamant about improvement and kindness in life. He motivates me. David's blog mentions John Maxwell, a well known leadership speaker and writer. John's quote: "The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure."

Heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd? I think they are what John refers to as "achieving people." They were told in high school they would never amount to anything. They got suspended for growing their hair out. The band members put vaseline in their hair (eew) to keep the length a secret from their PE teacher. They eventually dropped out of school becuase the PE teacher haggled them to no end! The metal heads named their band after the one person who never thought they'd make it: Mr. Skinner. Couldn't we improve ourselves if we make an achievement out of failure? We all experience our fair share of rejection, failure, and mistakes, it takes a real champ to dust her shoulder off, and keep on trucking. Thanks David for posting, you're an inspiration to us all! John, you rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd: the best revenge is success!