1. Keeping God first at all times leads to the best results in life.
2. To truly get ahead in life, put others ahead of yourself.
3. Relationships matter more than anything else.
4. The most valuable commodity that we have on Earth is not money, but time.
5. We attract who and what we are, not who and what we want.
6. Those that impact the lives of others leave a legacy, even if you’ve never heard their name.
7. You can’t control your reputation, but you can certainly control your character.
8. Hard work beats talent that doesn’t work hard every time.
9. When one attempts to do something extraordinary, they are first ignored, then laughed at, then fought against, then envied, before finally becoming respected in victory.
10. Those in your life that truly matter are there when you need them.
11. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
12. It’s not the actions of others that shape your life, but your reactions.
13. If you want to see someone’s true colors, watch them under adversity.
14. Most of the time the best spin on a situation is the truth.
15. The richest men in the world are the most generous.
16. Leaders that are followed by choice will always have a greater impact in the long run than those that are followed by force.
17. If you don’t trust those that are close to you, they’re really not that close to you.
18. If you don’t try to live out your dreams, you’re not truly awake.
19. Those that aren’t wise with their money don’t have it for long.
20. Those that are always conscious and cognizant of their situations and circumstances are the ones that step up and seize the moment.
21. Your actions in the present affect the shape of your past in the future.
22. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.
23. Everyone fails; it’s how you respond to failure that determines your success.
24. You are what you eat.
25. Nothing we do or say can change others; we can only hope to inspire a movement for change within them.

Conversely, it’s surprisingly easy to fall off the track that God has set before us and before we know it, we don’t know where we’re at, how we got there, or how to get back to where we’re supposed to be. A Swedish skier (I couldn’t even begin to pronounce or spell his name) experienced this when he won 2 gold medals in 2002 at a young age, then got caught up in his success and finished no higher than 15^th in 2006, and then came to Vancouver in 2010 to once again win 2 gold medals. The difference? He came to Canada completely focused on achieving his goals. Nothing would stop him from pursuing his calling with his God-given gifts to the best of his ability. And it showed. He won by a significant margin in both events.

These distractions can be avoided sometimes, though, by leaving “mile markers” on where we’ve been in life to help keep us focused on where we’re going. These signs can come in various forms, from a battle scar to a trophy to a story so unforgettable that we write it out just to make sure that we won’t. For me, my prominent “mile markers” are preserved on my skin in the form of tattoos. Each of my 4 tattoos tell a story, and if I was wise enough to allow them to serve their purpose and remember them more often, I might not get stressed out as much.

My latest tattoo, the Gye Nyame, is a Ghanaian symbol that represents the supremacy of God, or, “God Wills It.” Given all that I’ve been through and all that lies in front of me, how could I possibly forget that I serve a God that is greater than everything else given all that He’s delivered me from over the years? It’s amazing what we can accomplish if we retain the mindset that God is with us.  It’s only when we’re foolish enough to ignore the signs from our own experiences that we are truly at risk of becoming lost in the sea of uncertainty.

As we laughed about this guy’s inability to take an easier, more logical path for fear of disrupting bicyclers, it occurred to me that we often do the same things in life and in business. Why do we ignore running the race path that makes the most sense, only to stubbornly insist on going about things our own way regardless of what our peers and our current set of circumstances present before us. If you see someone else in your field doing something, and it works, do it, and figure out how to do it better. Don’t make things harder on yourself by trying to blaze your own path until it becomes necessary. I’m reminded of the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And really, you’ve got bigger problems than the poison ivy if you’re so worried about pissing someone off that’s not even around yet.

There’s more to this than just following the beaten path, though. By using our common sense and becoming aware of our surroundings, we enable ourselves to thrive in said surroundings. By thriving in our current situations and running the path provided, we are able to save our energy for a greater battle later on, whether it be the last hill of a run, the fourth quarter of a basketball game, or the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. By not making mountains out of mole hills and preparing for the battles that matter, we set ourselves up for great achievements throughout the race.

And besides, does anyone ever really remember running the race? Or just crossing the finish line?

Shameless Plug:

My basketball team, the Southern Illinois Truth, has raised over 500 pounds of food on behalf of the local food shelters through the first two days of the Hoop For Hunger Series with one more to go Wednesday night. If you are anywhere near Olney, IL, try and make your way out to the high school that night (5/20) or catch our home opening series on 5/29 and 5/30. More details to come later, but for those of you that care I’m a starter and a captain and play with a great group of guys that puts up a lot of points…very entertaining to watch. And yes, we dunk alot, too.

Shameless Plug #2:

Do you tweet? I do and my twitter handle, or “twandle,” if you will, is @tsickmeyer. Also, follow: @kyleweberphoto, @blakeweber87, @thealexzander, @seedaneed, @rendermyheart, and @5stonemarketing.

That should get you all you tweeters started. Have a great week.

Now, maybe your eyesight is 20/20, or maybe the state requires that you break out your bifocals before hitting the open road. This, however, is much bigger than our eyesight. As either a Christ-follower, entrepreneur, or person in a management position (it’s assumed that you are at least one of the three if you are reading this blog), it’s important to take a step back and check our vision once in awhile.

Check this out: when I was a college freshman, I was a Pre-Law major. Today, I am a semi-professional basketball player, entrepreneur, speaker, and consultant. I promise you, aside from basketball, not a one of these things crossed my mind as an 18 year old. But then God shook things up a little bit. I met a great group of friends and as the result of a class project launched RockStock Company.

Now despite the ups and downs I’ve encountered over the years, I know that I’m doing what God has called me to in this life and am loving every minute of it. But it would be arrogant and self-serving of me to not take an honest re-examination of things every so often.

Just within the last week, I became frustrated over some things outside of my control. I began to ask God why things couldn’t just go smoothly for a while. Not great, mind you, just smoothly.  And then, within 24 hours, He showed me my answer: I saw not one but two instances where people in positions that I would have loved to be in saw their world fall apart.

Oh.

Um…I think this is where I apologize. Lesson learned (or at least temporarily remembered).

These folks had what I wanted, but they didn’t have it the WAY I wanted it. Maybe they got into too big of a rush to get to that point. Maybe it’s just the crappy way things went down for them. Maybe there is something greater required of them that required the learning experiences that they were dealt last week.

But one thing is for sure: there is no reason why we can’t learn from the experiences of others. Seeing what happened to them opened my eyes to a fresh perspective of why it’s better to patiently await God’s timing on some things instead of forcing the issue our selves. Now I’m not saying to avoid proactivity. I’m just saying to heed caution when it comes to finally getting something we want. After all, we’ve probably wanted it so bad for so long that our vision might be a little clouded. This is why we need a vision check.

The same principles apply in the business realm as well. How often do we plow ahead, dead set on one or more of our ideas that are “sure-fire winners?” Sometimes the marketplace dictates that we turn tail and run in order to live again and fight another day. It takes much more courage and fortitude to sever ties with one of our passions or pet projects than to plow ahead blindly regardless of the results.  Again, the occasional vision check becomes important.

So how does one go about checking their vision?

Prayer goes along way. LISTENING to God’s answer goes even further. Jesus Himself said in John 6:45 that “They will all be taught by God. Whoever listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” So there you have it. Listening to God can take care of all of our vision issues.

From a business perspective, take time out to meet with your target demographic. Do you sell paper for Dunder Mifflin Paper Company? Than load Michael Scott and company into the car and head out to your customers. Realize, understand, and meet their needs in such a way that customer loyalty is established with or without a big sale or huge marketing budget.

The vision of your company caring isn’t one that they’ll soon forget.

Today, I leave you with free, legal music:

Download yourself a copy of Thousand Foot Krutch’s new song “Bring Me To Life” that’s on the album coming out this fall. This song is sick, I promise:

Download URL:

http://www.welcometothemasquerade.com/Bring%20Me%20To%20Life%20MP3.zip

This past weekend I attended Agape Festival in Greenville, IL.  Great festival. It was awesome getting to hang out, see old friends, and not run around taking care of last minute details like I usually do at events. It gave me a chance to enjoy Skillet’s show Friday night as a fan, not as a promoter.

Being a fan presents a whole new perspective that can be lost to those that never leave catering or the promoter office. It’s good to remember what it’s like to wait in line for things, use public rest rooms (OK, I could have done without that) and talk with other fans about their experiences. It’s easy to lose the fact that we are responsible for presenting an unforgettable and potentially life changing event to our consumers amidst our concern for the logistics and numbers.

This concept transcends the live event industry.  I promise you it is not lost on me that my marketing firm, 5Stone Marketing, is responsible for the well being of our clients’ livelihoods. If we don’t succeed, these clients may need to lay off employees or go out of business. Keeping this in perspective allows my team and myself a sense of urgency that many companies and organizations simply don’t have.

Take the troubled auto-industry for instance. I drive a fairly generic Pontiac Grand-Am GT. When I needed new tires, they were almost impossible to find and cost me over $100 per tire, just for the cheapest option. Only one store in Central Illinois had the tire size that I needed. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and others turned me down. I bought Neal Tire’s only four tires that would fit my car. These “performance” tires that my car requires dramatically increase the after-market cost on a mid-level car that is fairly popular in the Midwest.  If the auto-industry had any sense, it would be concerned for its consumers’ after market costs. I mean, after that experience, I can’t say I’d be inclined to ever buy a Pontiac Grand-Am again. If I want “performance” tires and all sorts of other bells and whistles, I’ll buy a Camaro or a Corvette.

Of course, this requires being in touch with one’s demographic.  My friends that run Render, a college ministry in metro St. Louis, do a great job with this.  They over-obsess with how every detail connected to their ministry will affect their target demo-graphic, 18-30 year olds. This commitment to their “consumers” has enabled Render to experience consistent growth in light of not having a permanent building or some vast marketing budget.

Politicians have it rougher than we give them credit for. I mean, how hard must it be for them to stay in touch with their constituencies when they are surrounded by lobbyists for every imaginable cause all week? The next political star will be someone that actively engages with their constituency through technologies like Facebook and Twitter, but also through old-fashioned town hall meetings. Oh, and by the way, they will be doing these things when they are SERVING, not just running for re-election.

What if more businesses told their supporters how much they appreciate them? You know, besides the 10% off coupon in the mail. I mean, really just said thank you? It’s part of this amazing concept called gratitude that might just help turn around our economy and even the flavor of our lifestyles if enough leaders implemented it.

Jesus Christ was the perfect example for this. No matter how tired/worn out He was, the dude ALWAYS took time out for the people that needed him, none more so than His disciples. They were the ones with Him day in and day out, and were privileged to receive insights and attention from Christ that no one else did. Jesus took care of His own.

So let me leave you all with this challenge. Identify your base. Are you in touch with them? If not, what could you do to get in touch with them? If you don’t relate to them anymore, do you have someone on your team that does? The time is now to figure this out and adapt. Best of luck, and thanks for reading.

I’m leaving you all with this really cool cover The Fray did of Kanye West’s “Heartless.”

It’s my way of saying thanks for reading/following my blog. Hope you enjoy it!

My friend Dane and I are going to the Cardinals-Mets game in St. Louis on Thursday (12:40 Game Time).

We are giving away an extra ticket to just about anyone that wants it. If you want a free ticket, post a comment to this blog as to why you deserve the free ticket. We’ll choose a winner. Make sure you put an email address in your comment so that I can get in touch with you. Hint: Funny/Creative counts, and extra credit may be applied to anyone that submits a link to a video application that they make on Youtube or some other hosting site.

I’ll announce a winner on Wednesday. And maybe, just maybe, there will be multiple winners if they’re good enough?

Good Luck!

- Getting to see old friends that you only run into when you have events with them

- Hanging out with my friend Dane, who is back on leave from the USMC for a week

- Enjoying witnessing the pranks that come with hosting the last day of a 20-city tour, such as Jeremy Camp riding a bicycle across the stage during 10th Avenue North’s set

- The volunteers that came from all over to give of their time, energy, and patience to make the show successful. They were truly amazing.

I love the fact that my job running RockStock Company requires me to go to shows like the one last night. Both RockStock and I are in a transitional progression that, when completed, will be nothing short of amazing. There is a difference between RockStock’s transition and my own, however: RockStock’s should be completed this year, while mine will never be completed in this lifetime. You see, RockStock’s transition is strictly from a business and ministry standpoint. There are x’s and o’s to be put in place, i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed. We can look at the progress and say, “Great- A,B, and C are done, now we need to focus on getting our act together with X,Y, and Z.”

Not so with the transformation of Tyler Sickmeyer. I, like everyone one not named Jesus Christ, was put in a hopeless situation of trying to live a life of perfection in an imperfect world. Being human, I have naturally failed and continue to fail to this day. Thankfully, I have been given new life through Jesus Christ and can put in my RSVP for the best after-party ever- eternity with Christ in Paradise. But in the mean time we as Christians are called to live a lifestyle modeled after Christ’s. This is a big transformation to go from our sin-filled pasts to, well, Christ-like. Quite frankly, it would be much easier to transform Barack Obama into a conservative or Denny’s into real food than it is to transform ourselves into Christ-like figures.

I find it sad that more people don’t try though. I mean, imagine if everyone that claims to be a Christian or Christ-follower tried to live a more Christ-like life. It’s really quite simple- Love God and love others as much, if not more, than we love ourselves. That’s it. Two commandments. Yeah Yeah, I know: there’s 10 on the tablets that Moses got- but if we follow the first two, would we ever be in a position to contemplate lying, stealing, cheating, murdering, adultery, or jealousy?

I’m not saying that I’m perfect, or even close to it. But what if we all, my self included, made a much more concerted effort to follow Christ? Can you imagine what the world would be like?

I can.

Sometimes. Allow me to explain….

Earlier today I was talking with a business partner about strategy and future plans within our company, and when we talk about such things, it’s important that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves, putting the cart before the horse and setting ourselves up for one magnificent train wreck of an operation. If we don’t exhibit patience, we are to a certain extent building ourselves up for failure.

I learned this lesson the hard way during my early days as a concert promoter, when agents took advantage of an ambitious 19-year-old college student eager to prove that he had the chops to compete in a cutthroat industry. But you know what? I learned from those early mistakes…and am now a much different individual with a slightly different set of mannerisms at the ripe old age of 22.

That said, patience is a double-edged sword that will cut deep into our Achilles heels if we let it.  We simply cannot allow ourselves to become content patiently waiting for success to show up on our doorstep. If we don’t get out and pursue our goals with an almost reckless ambition, we may never reach them.

I have seen both sides of this.  For awhile I was patient when it came to basketball, waiting for my agent to make something happen while I continued to work hard at home, staying in shape, losing weight, and getting better. Finally I realized that I couldn’t trust my career in the hands of someone else that had much bigger names and moneymakers to tend to than myself.  I had to make myself a priority. And I did, calling team owners and even league commissioners myself until I landed myself a tryout that led to a gig on an expansion team in a good league that would lend credibility to my basketball career.

The point I’m trying to get at is this: while you must be patient as you prepare yourself for your calling, whatever that may be, you can’t be afraid to step forward and acknowledge that after your work is complete yes, you are ready, and not only are you ready but you are so ready that you feel you are better than most others that might also consider themselves ready for a similar task, project, goal, etc.

So as you go forward this week, consider two things:

1)    What (or who) have you been pushing for a little too hard that you need to show more patience with?
2)    What (or again, who) have you been a little too patient with and it’s time that you move forward with things?

Today’s Link: http://www.therockandworshiproadshow.com/

Watch a free concert with Mercy Me and Jeremy Camp online Thursday-Sunday nights.

Have a great week.

Here I will share my experiences, thoughts, rants, and life-lessons from work, the basketball court, my social life (or lack there of), and most importantly my faith.  Fresh content will be compiled here every Monday and Thursday, as well as at random times when significant events occur. It’s my hope that you find this blog encouraging, enlightening, and entertaining. I welcome comments and debate (as well as coffee and good conversation in person if you’re in your 20’s, single, female, and gorgeous- hey, just throwing it out there).

The first couple of posts will help bring readers up to speed on things, and I am also going to try and leave an interesting link to check out at the end of each entry.

Today’s link: Take a closer look at the basketball league I am currently playing in, www.iblhoopsonline.com. The league features great competition and is very much a stepping-stone for players looking to enhance their professional careers. I’m blessed to play here.

God Bless you and yours on this Easter weekend.