Chad Writes Stuff

We have become a society that is addicted to success.  Everything we do seems to be judged on a success based principle.  If you don't succeed at something, you are a failure.  I don't like to call things "failing", just like I prefer not to say that a thing is "good" or "bad", but rather it just is. Often times we have expectations about the way something should go and if we agree with it, we call it a success, and if the outcome doesn't agree with our expectation, we call it a failure.  I like to refer to those instances, good or bad as life lessons.  When something doesn't agree with your expectation, it was probably never deemed to turn out the way you wanted it to.  There are certain things you can control and certain things you cannot, my advise is learn the difference and love the ride. Nobody seeks to start a project, venture or business and have it fail.  The truth is it doesn't fail, it just doesn't have the universal bles...

This may or may not be a random blog for you to read but I am about to begin a month long travel spree all over the US.  It will entail San Francisco, Maui, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Miami.  Many of you know that I travel a lot for work and when I can find the time, I stay over a day or two in the locations to get a lay of the land and see what it is all about.  Even though I go to many of the same cities time and time again, it is always an adventure.  You see today I sit in a starbucks in Palo Alto,blogging, and tomorrow I will be doing project management in Maui. I have taken subways, and trains to numerous destinations.  I have studied timetables and directions.  I have learned the difference between BART and Muni and CalTrain and know how to pull the information I need to get to destinations I have to go to.  Can you do the same?  You see some people look at traveling like a headache.  They think that life is all about the journey a...

If life were always easy, would there be merit?  Sure it would be nice to always have money in the bank, a sunshine personality, and no backstabbing friends, but the truth is, we were never guaranteed any of that. When something goes your way, it is enjoyable and fulfilling and gives you a sense of understanding and appreciation.  The difficult times, judge your character.  Its easy to run away from conflict, heartache and strife, but what benefit do you get? Not every situation in your life is going to "come up roses".  My own struggle with my Mom's cancer has lead me through every emotion known to mankind.  I have experienced joy, anger, sadness, despair, lonliness and depression, to name a few.  In truth, there are times I just want to run away, but in reality, I know exactly why I am where I am.  Whether its to be by moms side for a few moments and tell her I love her while she sleeps, or to hold her hand for an hour while she battles the intense pain in her mouth, it...

Life sucks sometimes, let's face it.  You wake up in the morning and you feel like you haven't slept in weeks, you don't have enough money for your bills, your late for work, forgot to make the kids lunch, spilled coffee all over your favorite shirt.  You know the routine, but the truth of the matter is you can see beyond that if you choose.  Those scenarios don't have to rule your life. Every person has the ability to choose his or her path.  Some people choose easy while others choose to follow the path that is meaningful and right for them, full well knowing that it is going to come with speed bumps and all.  The truth is that you know your purpose.  The question is "Will you follow it?".  You know that little voice in your head (can also be heart or stomach), is there for a reason and when you follow it, you begin to see more clearly.  Doors begin to open and roads that didn't exist begin to pave right before your eyes. But what seems t...

So I have been reading a lot about minimalism lately and it hit me like a ton of bricks, I am a minimalist.  Whether it was by choice, chance or necessity, It happened to me in 2005 and again this year.  It actually began in 2005 when I was living with my then girlfriend, now ex, in Bradenton Florida.  She moved back to California after months of not being able to find work and my money situation at the bike store where I worked, unable to keep us afloat.  I had been alone in the apartment with our 3 cats for almost 3 months and was missing being around her.  We had spent nearly 7k getting all of our stuff down to the two bedroom apartment and knew we wouldn't have enough cash to get it back to California. I am very logical when it comes to matters of this nature, and decided to discuss the merits of downsizing.  The hard part of the discussion with my ex, while on the phone, was looking around at all the things that we had.  Most of our stuf...