Tag: lego

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Want more Time and Money? Do this…

Hot Dog Suit Guy lego vacation
Hot Dog Suit Guy enjoys his time chillaxing by the pool!

What is the definition of Time?  This seems silly because everyone knows what time is but when you really come down to define it… What is Time?   Google it and you get this:

  1. the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.
  2. a point of time as measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon.

Both of these definitions are quite vague.  The meaning that I will use for time is the value of our experiences and efforts and how it relates to progress and potential.  When you look at time this way it becomes more personalized.  It becomes my time and your time – each understood in only our own unique way.  What kind of value can you place on your experiences and effort?  What kind of value can you place on your progress and potential?

Lets define money.  What is it?  Put simply it is:

  1. any circulating medium of exchange

This is very simple.  So let’s think about this.  What value does money hold?

None.

It is the medium of exchange not the item exchanged for.  Sometimes it is the simple things that are difficult to understand.  When you start trading your time for money you are actually trading something of infinite worth – one’s potential – for something that has no value in and of itself.  This does not make sense.  So why do we all have that goal to make tons of money and trade all our time doing it?

Think about it this way.

If it is money you are going after then you will find it.  Once you have tons of money it does not bring happiness.  How many stars and professional athletes have died from drug overdose?  Why would they do that? They have all the money one could ever want…

Money represents our time, but if our time is spent in the pursuit of money, then what does our time represent?  Lost time is a sad story.  Lost time can never be bought or brought back.  Lost time is regret.  Trading time for money may seem like a good idea at the time but when you look back with a clear vision through the lens of time, money is no replacement for a life lived.

Wealth is measured in time not money.  When you start to value your time more than money – that is when you will start to make more of both.  You will stop accepting peanuts and kids wages for your time because you value it more than that.  When you value your time, you use it wisely to gain understanding and wisdom and knowledge wherever it is found.  When you value your time, you use it in ways that make you and others happy.  When you value your time you tend to put a higher value on yourself.

Start today to look at what you would do if money were not needed.  What are you truly passionate about?  What are your dreams?  What would you trade your time for even if it did not bring you money?

Focus your energy on that instead of making money and you will find that you will eventually have true wealth – both time and money separated.  Want more time and money?  Do this.

 

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Lego WALL•E


I am stoked that this set is finally going to be produced!  It was announced as the winner of the Lego Ideas competition: WALL•E

I think the Lego ideas platform is a fine example of excellent marketing and design.  It not only involves the user base of Legos but shows that the Lego company and brand cares about its customers and puts an emphasis on interaction and feedback.  It is a way to not only bring to market what people want to see, but also to include folks in the design process.  It is a great example of a crowd-sourcing idea that works very well for all involved.  It is a win-win situation.

I recently listened to the book Brick by Brick by David Robertson and Bill Breen.  It expounds on the details of how Lego almost went bankrupt until it changed its strategy and focused on making people their primary focus.   I enjoyed the book, and it brought many good ideas to the table to learn and implement.  This is partially why I decided to focus more on what I can give my customers rather than get from them.

It is interesting to see how such an amazing company like Lego was in dire straights only about ten years ago.  They sure have made a comeback and have diversified enough to remain interesting to young and old.   I will be purchasing the Lego WALL•E when it comes out!

I am excited by this Lego design and I think it’s an awesome toy.  Many creative minds went into designing the character Walle through sketch, animation, story and now Lego building.

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Building Lego is Work we Love


As a kid I thoroughly enjoyed building Lego.  I would work hard doing random things to try and make some extra spending money – which generally went to Lego sets.

I spent many summers traveling out to the mine with my grandfather.  We would ride the backhoe up some haphazard switchbacks he had scraped in the side of a steep colluvial fan.  Sometimes my grandfather would have us switch sides and basically use us as ballast so the backhoe would not slip.

I spent many long hours on a ladder leaned against the cliffs.  I would carry a three foot hammer drill up as high as I could get it and spend 20-45 minutes per drilled hole.  The difficult thing was the cliff was only a foot away.  In order to hold the hammer drill I would have to lean back two feet and hold that position while trying to maintain some kind of pressure.

Once we had made Swiss cheese of the cliff face we would then stuff each hole with dynamite and C4 detonation cord.  My grandfather carried a blasting cap inside his pocket – tinkling with his Wriggleys gum and prospector lens.  He really was an old-time character.  He would take a stick of dynamite and break it in half over his knee.  Then he would dig out the sawdust and nitroglycerin innards with his trusty old timer pocket knife.  He would then tape a blasting cap on the end of the detonation cord and shove it into the hole.  Electrical tape it right and use the end of a broken shovel to ram it down into the hole.

I just imagined how if the cliff blew, I would only hear a slight muffle and then there would be complete and utter blackness.

I mention mining with my grandpa because it was an adventure (We mined Alabaster).  It was a way to truly feel alive.  And that’s how I earned a lot of my spending money that went to Lego.  I loved how each set was created out of so many pieces that had the possibility to be anything I could imagine.  The possibilities were endless…  And so were the options I created to make money. From mining to selling cherries with my dog, there was always something to get me a few bucks in my pocket.

I have since looked back on my childhood and I realized that my days were full of work I enjoyed.  It was fun, creative, and hard.  But it never really felt like work.  I know have boys of my own and I have introduced them to the addiction of building Lego.  Lego is a toy I’ll gladly buy for them (and myself).  I have had many odd jobs from inventory to switch gear design over the past fifteen years but my favorite has been the hardest work that does not feel like work.

I have spent the past fifteen years designing and growing my Wowflutes until it has become my main focus.  I am passionate about making products that can be enjoyed, and ones that never get old.  Like Lego.

My goal with Wowflutes is to show that you can love what you do and be successful to.  I feel that too many folks are focused on earning money as their primary goal.  This is not a bad thing, but what they do not know is that the most successful individuals are those who are doing what they love.  The work does not feel like work but rather play, just like those long hours spent in my childhood working, playing and building Lego.

(see more of my Toy Photography)