Just like any business, new customers are just as important as making sure the preexisting customers continue to return and stay updated.  So, very soon, you will see 4 designs on the side of the main page.  The first 4 designs that you will see have been created by children that have been given Be A Number shirts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  The children were told to draw something that represents themselves, their culture, or their community.  Out of the 250 shirts that were given out on the Pine Ridge, these are the 4 finalists.  People will then vote on which design that they like the best, and the design with the most votes will be made into a new Be A Number shirt.  However, this shirt will not have a number on the back.  Instead, a percentage of the sales from this shirt will go directly back to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  After a winner is chosen out of these 4 shirts, those 4 will be replaced with new designs that were created by a kid from a different shirt drop location.

In my mind, Be A Number is starting to layer.  What I mean by that is this: in layer 1, you buy into Be A Number buy purchasing one of the original shirts and you actually become a number.  Next is layer 2, you dig a little deeper to find out where your shirt goes, see some pictures from the trip, and learn a little bit about the kids and the people there.  Next is layer 3, where you see 4 new design possibilities, one them could actually be from your matching number.  So, you vote on which one you like best, and when the winner is chosen, you purchase that shirt, knowing that you have not only supported a child’s creative mind, but also given them an actual financial reward that could, in the future, help to buy them new school supplies, medical assistance, or a million other things that could help them.

It’s all about changing the world.  And look, just by purchasing these 2 shirts, what have you done?  You have not only changed a child’s mind by letting them know that someone is always thinking about them and giving them the knowledge that they can do whatever they can dream, but also helping to change their physical world.  With these 2 purchases, you have done just that.

It’s amazing what happens when you dig a little deeper into a cause, a business, or even a T-shirt.

If you like this post, copy the link and repost it on your Facebook or Twitter to help spread the word.

My Twitter – click here.  Be A Number Twitter – click here.

My Facebook – click here.  Be A Number Facebook – click here.

Today, I was sitting in a film session, preparing to play the #1 team in the country, when my coach said, “play fast, but under control, and with a base.”  When he said that, I naturally thought about blocking.  You have to play fast, under control, and with a base… it’s as simple as that, but think of it from a business/life standpoint.  Think of playing the game of life fast.  When you play something fast, that means that you’re playing with confidence.  You have to know where you want to be before you move and you want to find the best possible way to get there.

When it comes to being under control in football, it means having a sense of calm about you.  Not laziness.  Not being slow, but under control.  You want to move fast, but be under control.  Being under control from a business/life standpoint, in my eyes, is focusing your excitement.  You know when you are excited about your business or your idea and you just want to tell the world?  You are so happy that you could scream?  Learn to control and harness that excitement into a work ethic that will allow your business to succeed.

Lastly, play with a base.  This is often overlooked in football as well as in the business world.  Playing with a base, from a football standpoint, means to keep your feet shoulder-width apart and by doing this, it is harder to knock you over.  If your feet become too close, and you try to hit someone, you will fall… hard.  When I think of keeping a base in business, I think of the building blocks of a company. A successful business will first have a cause, a passion, a reason for doing what they are doing. If you are reading this and do not have a passion for what you are doing, stop doing it.  It’s as simple as that.  There are so many opportunities to make yourself happy out there, and people spend way too much time worrying about money, rather than enjoying what they are doing and writing their own exciting life story. This is the great thing about business.  You can do whatever you want.  You heard a million times when you were a kid, “you can do anything you can dream of,”  but did you really listen to it?  I know I didn’t.  You hear it, but you don’t listen.  Well, seriously, listen to it.  You can do anything in the world.  Isn’t that amazing?

Find your passion.  Life is a game, just like football.  You can either choose to have fun and “play fast, but under control and with a base,” or you can just stand on the sideline and watch the game go by.

My Twitter – click here.  Be A Number Twitter – click here.

My Facebook – click here.  Be A Number Facebook – click here.

Something that I have recently started to do in books that I read is to take notes in the back.  If I find a sentence or paragraph that hits me harder than the rest or I just think that I can use in the future, I highlight the sentence and on the back or front inside cover I write down the page number and any idea that I have that are associated with it.  Sometimes the sting of ideas that you can create off of one small sentence or paragraph are amazing.  This also helps me once I finish the book, because I do not know if you are like me and HATE rereading books, but if you are this helps you to just simply hit the main points that you took from it.

On more of a personal note, Rework literally helped me to “rework” Be A Number.  It is changing for the better very soon, and I can’t wait to show it off.  It is being worked on very hard right now by a few great people.  I will just say this though, the new Be A Number will get the children who receive the shirts more involved in the business as well as strengthen our original belief, and that is to make the world a smaller and more hopeful place.  Besides helping me to improve Be A Number, it motivated me to finish up the children’s book that a buddy and I have been working on for quite some time.  We are going to self publish it because my friend did the illustrations.  I believe that if we were to get it published then we would essentially lose most of the control and creative vision for the book.  We have decided that a part of the proceeds from the book will come back to Be A Number, to help spread the word as well as to help clothe more children.  Lastly, Rework helped me to start-up an Iphone application.  I always have off of the wall ideas that I am just to lazy to make happen, but in this case, because of this book, I was motivated to actually pursue the end result.  I am so glad that I did, because it is currently being built, and honestly, I just can not wait to see the end product.

Speaking of technology, if you haven’t heard or checked out 37signals you should, at www.37signals.com.  I haven’t purchased any of their software, but I have heard that it is really easy to use and just simply helps you to organize complicated aspects of your life.

Lastly, I just want to thank Kevin Rose’s Twitter account for recommending this book to me.  You can check out all of his hyperlinks and random video blogs at his website: www.kevinrose.com.

If you wish to purchase Rework, click here.

My Twitter – click here.  Be A Number Twitter – click here.

My Facebook – click here.  Be A Number Facebook – click here.

Here are a few:

Mlive.com

Grand Valley Lanthorn

Hillsdale Collegian

Poverty News Blog

On spring break, I went to Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to hand out the first 250 shirts. “Pine Ridge is the eighth largest reservation in the United States, it is also the poorest. Unemployment on the reservation hovers around 80%, and 49% live below the Federal poverty level.[2] Adolescent suicide is four times the national average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. Many families use wood stoves to heat their homes. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average. (wikipedia)”

In my opinion, the reservation seemed to be a third world country in the middle of the United States. I did not know what to expect, as this was our first shirt drop, I was a little nervous. When we drove onto the reservation, it was very isolated, and for the first few miles, there was nothing around. The scenery was amazing. With the mountains and open land, I couldn’t help but think about how people used to live. But as we drove further, we began to see how we have forced these people to live.

With alcoholism being a huge problem on the reservation, signs where friends and family had passed away peppered the sides of the roads. There were dogs running wild and dogs dead on the side of the road. But the most disturbing experience that I had when I was there was when we first arrived on the reservation.

We had directions to the Red Cloud Indian School, but having never been there before, we had no real clue as to where it was on this huge reservation. Well, long story short, we got really turned around. I suggested that we turn down a side dirt road because in my mind, this was the right way. We turned down the road and I soon stopped the car because I realized it was the wrong way. But I didn’t turn around right away. I saw something down the road. So I sat and waited. What I saw may not seem that insane, but to me, for some reason, I felt so sad. I saw a man with a drink in his hand just walking aimlessly. It was such a sad sight because he honestly looked as though he has nowhere to go and nothing to do but drown in his drink and in his loneliness.

We turned the car around and eventually found our way to the elementary school where we were met by the nicest people. It is amazing to know that these people have struggled more than we could ever know, and yet they were acting as though their lives had been filled with endless joy. What I would later learn is that the residents of the Pine Ridge simply take advantage of their joyful moments more than the rest of us do.

Anyway, back to the trip, I went to the different classrooms, kindergarten through the 4th grade and spoke to them about the shirts that they were receiving. I started out talking about the shirts, I told them that their shirt has an individual order number on the back of it, sort of like a team jersey, and this shirt has a matching one somewhere in the United States. They were intrigued and smiled when I told them that every time they wear that shirt to know that someone, somewhere around the world is thinking about them. I also spoke about the message that is printed on the back of every shirt, “Change the World”. I told them that one day soon, they will change the world. I said that by staying in school and writing goals they will not only change their own personal world, but they will change their family’s world, and their community’s world.

I remember when I was younger, this realization was something bigger than I could comprehend at the time, but would stick with me throughout my life. After I spoke with them, I would always ask if they had any questions, and the questions were great. They would always ask who had their shirt, they asked if I was on the Disney channel, they asked if I could sign their shirts, and a ton more flattering questions.

A few hours had passed after I had delivered the shirts and I was finishing up speaking with everyone that I needed to, when I realized that I had left my book bag in one of the classrooms. I walked back over to the school by myself in search of the bag. I went to the classroom and the kids were excited to tell me how they had found it and ran it to the office for me to find. I thanked them and walked to the office. After I got my backpack, I walked out through the playground only to see every kid playing with their new Be A Number shirts on. A few waved and a few were too into the game to notice I was even there, but one of the best moments of the trip happened as I was walking off of the playground. A girl was being picked up by her mom and I saw that this girl had a Be A Number shirt on. She saw me and her eyes lit up. She smiled and tugged on her mom’s coat and pulled her ear closer. I saw the girl whisper something with a smile and point at me. The mom looked, smiled, and lipped the words “thank you” to me. Do you know that times in life that you take visual snapshots of? The ones that change your life in the small amount of time it took to happen? That was one of those moments.

We left Pine Ridge and I realized that Be A Number was not just an idea anymore. It not only felt real to just me anymore, but also to 500 other people; the 250 that bought into Be A Number from the very beginning and took a chance on something new and the 250 children on the Pine Ridge.

We are currently working on improving the Be A Number website. The website will soon include pictures from the trip, a video from the trip, and ways to donate to the Red Cloud Indian School, as well as buy some of the one-of-a-kind, handmade items that local Native American artists on the reservation created. This can be done at the Heritage Center. This gives them the opportunity to be self sufficient; I see this as a great addition to Be A Number.

The reason that I really wanted to make a blog today is because I have come up with a list of things to do this year. I guess you can call it “new year’s resolutions” but to me they fall under another category. I can not take full credit for all of these, because a few of them were inspired from Tim Ferriss as well as Kevin Rose. Tim Ferriss wrote The Four Hour Workweek and keeps a blog @ www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog. And Kevin Rose is Tim Ferriss’ friend who is the Founder of Digg. You can check out some of Kevin Rose’s stuff @ kevinrose.com. Anyway… I am hoping that by posting this for all to see, I can accomplish all of these goals.

YEAR 2010 PLANS (in no order)
1. Learn to grow a bonsai Tree
2. See more live music
3. Drink more wine with friends
4. Learn to fly fish
5. Get my blood tested and check for vit. D
6. Read “Vagabonding“
7. Get into tea
8. Buy at least two pieces of art
9. Go wine tasting
10. Go Chocolate tasting
11. Cliff Jump
12. Camp on a mountain

So that is my list. I think they sound fun. If you have done any of these or know anything about any of them, let me know.

Also, I don’t know if I had had this on the blog before, but add me on my Facebook and Twitter.

I’m so excited for this year.

LISTENING 2: SYMPHONIES by DAN BLACK

The first few hundred shirts officially have a home. The first few hundred shirts will be going to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I contacted their foster care agency and they were so excited about the shirts and what they will bring. I can not wait to go. Me and a few of my coworkers will be going during our spring break. I can not wait for this opportunity.

My classes start tomorrow and I am really excited for entrepreneurship class. I have no clue what it entails but I hope I get an A in it lol. Tomorrow night I have a small table set up at my schools “Winter-fest”. I have never been to “Winter-fest” but this year it involves an ice skating rink, so that should be sweet. I love ice skating so I will definitely be on that when nobody is watching. I like to skate but I suck haha. OK, I’m going crazy so I have to get off of this computer because these girls are still talking. I wish I could record what they have been talking about, it’s soo all over the place. haha

We have finals this week for school. But I am a P.E. major… so I have one… and it should be really easy. It’s funny because all of my friends are all studying REALLY hard and I am just sitting in my room chilling and listening to music. I keep asking them if they want to go out and find a party, but for some reason they just get kind of mad and leave. haha. PE major 4 LIFE!!

My dad just gave me a book called “Have a Little Faith” by Mitch Albom. He said it was amazing so he gave it to me 2 read. I hope to start that soon, lord knows I will have time. Hmmm… anything else new in my life? Well I broke my record player which sucks. The needle broke. So know I just have a bunch of records that I can’t listen to.

I think that is about all I have to say. It was a random post but I just needed to say that I got a tattoo.

Listening 2: THE WALLFLOWERS – ONE HEADLIGHT

Listening 2: FRANK SINATRA – IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

p.s. We just got our Christmas tree and it is ballin.

So besides Be A Number I have not been up to much. We just recently had a dog. It was a Boxer. Wow. So we got this dog when it was 3 – so it wasn’t a puppy or anything. His name was Lenny and he loved to eat, poop everywhere, sleep and tear the house up. Now, for the first week or so this was OK because me and my housemates were convinced that we could break his bad habits. He was getting better… and then he went crazy lol. He actually had separation anxiety so whenever we would leave to go to football he would freak out. So after a while we just couldn’t handle him so we found him a good home where someone will always be with him. BUT before he left he left us a few parting gifts haha. My friend was actually home at the time – but he was upstairs. I leave for about 15 min. and I come back and find the biggest duce I have ever seen on the floor – and actually one of my other friends had come home and stepped in it! I have NO clue how he first could not smell it when he first walked in. I was actually hit with a wave of poop smell when I walked in. OK so besides the poop he grabbed a remote from a table and chewed it in half haha. Then after that he decided to get on the counter and eat a box of boneless chicken wings. He still wasn’t done – he grabbed my mullet wig from Halloween the night before and practically ate it haha – there was hair everywhere! So yeah that was sweet.

I am so excited for Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Listening 2: KID CUDI – UP UP AND AWAY

Just a side note — Yesterday I went out and bought the movie Jeepers Creepers but have not mustered up the courage to watch it yet. I remember watching it at a friends house when it first came out and I remember freaking out. So instead of watching that I decided to watch the OLD House on Haunted Hill. It’s still good just in case you were wondering. I remember watching that as a kid on Halloween as I was counting/sorting out all of my candy. lol. I wonder if there is such a thing where you can spend the night in a hunted house like in the
movie… not like a bed and breakfast (although they can be freaky) but and actual house with some friends. I would do it… I think…I’m definitely in the Halloween spirit right now. I think tonight I am going to see Halloween II (the Rob Zombie one) with a couple of friends. I’ve heard it’s pretty messed up soooo I might just be the guy who offers to refill everybody’s popcorn and drinks the whole time.

Watching/Listening 2: THE SKELETON DANCE (1929) – See Below

It might be to scary for you.