For most of my life I've been an indoor guy. Sure, I've gone camping or eaten on the patio when going out to eat at a restaurant. But, I've not really taken seriously outdoor activity. By extension, I've not taken seriously my health.

Recently I decided to turn over a new leaf for real. No, really for real. I now go to the gym every weekday that I'm in town and workout with a trainer that likes to cause pain (lots and lots of pain). I have set a goal to be able to say that when I turn 40 (less than a year away) that I'm in the best shape of my life.

When I was 19 and 20, I was in pretty good shape so I've a long way to go.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Idaho Governor's Cup with my wife. One of the activities was a bike ride. It was led by John Foster and I knew that I might be out of my element. But, I also knew that since I've been working out hard all summer and I have gone on bike rides at my own pace, I needed to test myself.

Well, the bike ride, which wasn't very advanced, kicked my butt. I pushed as hard as I could but after close to an hour (you know when it actually started getting hard) I had to quit early. I had gone up a hill that was beyond my ability to keep going. I don't think my heart had ever raced that hard.

As I came back to the hotel, I realized there are a number of life lessons in this experience.

You can't go down without going up

The first thing I did on my way back was get off the trail and get on a road. The road was all downhill all the way and I was able to really fly. That was quite a fun experience. But, if I hadn't pushed to get up to the top of the hill, I would not have had that experience.

Going down without the work of going up isn't quite the same experience. The key thing that made that experience so enjoyable was reflecting on how hard it was to get to that point.

Hard things produce great results

As bad of shape as I now realize I am in, I hate to think how poorly I would have performed early in the summer. I thought I was in good shape but knowing what I know now, I must have been on my deathbed in May. I know that I'm in a better place now than I was before and I know, if I keep working, I'll be even better next time.

The most important thing that hard things produce is a feeling of accomplishment. Although I had to bow out early, I recognize that I have come a long way in my quest to be healthy.

You have to test yourself to know

The reality is that without this experience, I would never have known my real physical limit. I now know where my physical ability is and have a great benchmark to look at when I get on a hard trail again.

You always have to test yourself. If you just coast along in life, you'll never know what you can really accomplish. You'll never really know if you are meeting your potential or just doing ok.

You have to pace yourself

The very next day, my wife and I went for a long bike ride. About 17 miles. At about seven miles in, we met a hill that was about the same eleveation rise and about the same length... only 3,000 feet higher in the mountains. I paced myself better. I took more time while I was riding and took short breaks as I got tired.

The result, I was able to climb the hill more quickly than the day before and was fine to finish the last 10 miles of the ride. An appropriate pace made all the difference in the world.

Bottom line

In life we are tasked with doing things that are hard. Too often we take the easy way out. We don't take the time to push ourselves to see what we are really made of. Oftentimes we'll be surprised that we are either better than we think or not as good.

Testing ourselves is the way we give ourselves a reality check and sets us up for real growth.

My father-in-law is a retired farmer. He has worked years in various types of ranching and farming.

Before he retired, I remember him working long, long days at the beginning and the end of the season. When it was time to plant or when it was time to harvest, he would have a very small window in which to do his work.

Now, if you aren't familiar with farming, you may wonder why the window was so small. You might think, "Well, doesn't he have all year to do his job?"

The answer to that is that he doesn't have all year. The farmer never knows when it will rain or hail or the weather will turn. When it's time to sow or bring in the harvest, it's time. It means long days and night working hard to get it all done.

One year, my father-in-law watched as a hailstorm beat down his field to practically nothing. He had waited, hoping the weather would turn in his favor. Finally he was able to get his equipment on the field and was only able to harvest 10% of his typical yield.

My father-in-law was met with unfortunate timing. From experiences like that, he learned that when it was time to work, he didn't stop until the job was done. There was no such thing as a 40-hour work week. There was no such thing as quitting time unless he was just too tired to continue or the job was done.

In our company, we normally will expect that summer is going to be slow. In fact, typically, June and July are the slowest months of the year. The business then will pick up quite a bit in August.

This summer has surprised us. This summer has been the busiest on record for us. It's been amazing for us and caught us a bit off guard. It's not very often do we get so much more business than we know what to do with it.

We have experienced a bit of what a farmer experiences when it's time to sow and harvest. When it's time to work, we work. When we work, we work hard to get something done.

Don't be afraid to work when it is time to work. You never know what's coming down the road. You never know when the work will go away.

Years ago, I travelled quite a bit for work. I would find myself in cities large and small and, because it was someone else's money, I would stay at nicer hotels than I do now that I have to pay for it myself.

Another indulgence when travelling was that I would get an ice cream sundae every night. Sure, it wasn't good for my figure, but I sure like ice cream.

One time I was at a show at the Moscone Center and staying at the San Francisco Hilton. On my way back to the hotel, I figured I'd stop at the diner in the hotel and take a sundae back to my room.

What followed was a very interesting conversation. When I told them I wanted it to go so that I could take it to my room, the hostess denied me service because it was the job of the room service union to let me eat in my room. The union she was apart of couldn't serve me.

I was so taken aback that I questioned her more. I even tried to get my sundae by saying, "Ok, then I won't take it to my room." To which she replied, "But now that I know you are taking it to your room, I can't give it to you."

I was really shocked and I must have looked it because she followed up by saying, "We just can't do someone else's job. It wouldn't be right. You wouldn't want someone to do your job, would you?"

I had just come from a show where I was doing everyone's job and everyone was doing mine. We didn't have the option to wait for someone else to do it.

When I went to the concierge to complain, the attitude was, "Well, yeah, that's how it goes."

In battle when the boots hit the ground, the best laid plans go out the window. Imagine if the soldiers all threw up their arms at that point and said, "Sorry, it's not my job!"

When people start a new business, what would happen if the owner simply said, "No, I don't think I'll call that upset customer because that's sales' responsibility?"

The best leaders in history were never afraid to get their hands dirty. They never worried if it was someone else's job to get done. They only worried that the job got done. If someone else didn't step up, they stepped up.

All my life, I've taken the attitude that it is my job. If I don't do it then I assume it won't get done. I try to instill that attitude in my employees and I am proud to say that they tend to do a great job. If they all waited until someone did their job instead of making sure things got done I can't possibly imagine how our business would grow. If our business doesn't grow then their profit sharing check would be much smaller than it should be.

It's always your job. If something doesn't get done, it's your fault. Don't wait for anyone else.

Oh, by the way, that was the last time I stayed at the San Francisco Hilton.

Minimum wage laws have been around for a very long time to help the disadvantaged make a better living for themselves. Or, so we are told. The first Federal Minimum Wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act was a whopping $.25 and enacted on October 24, 1938. (source)

Before I started working at age 15, I thought that the idea of a minimum wage was a great thing. It meant, to my way of thinking at the time, that my minimum worth was set for me and I didn't have to worry about it.

When I got my first job (besides a paper route) in the fall of 1989, the minimum wage was $3.35. I was hired at El Pollo Loco near my home in Mesa, Arizona. It was a good job for a young kid just starting out (but don't get me started on the child labor laws that prevented me from working as much as I wanted).

I learned quickly that I didn't want my minimum worth to be set by some politician but instead by my own hard work. I found that if I applied myself, I could get raises. In fact, I got raises pretty quickly because of my hard work. By April 1990, I was earning $3.55 per hour.

Now, that may not seem like much. However, to get a $.20 raise in my first six months, I felt was a great thing.

April 1990, the minimum wage increased from $3.35 to $3.80. I went from making $3.55 to $3.80 over night. Great, huh?

Nope. It made me angry. I worked hard to get that $.20 raise. There were others that started before I did that didn't work as hard and therefore didn't get the raise that I did. On April 1, 1990, all my hard work was for naught.

Don't get me wrong. It was nice to get another $.25 raise. But, by my way of thinking, I should have been able to maintain my $.20 raise above those that didn't work as hard as I did.

Fast forward to summer of that same year. I started working for Target. I was hired as a cart boy. They had a great program that you could get a raise for being cross-trained into different departments. Because I also trained as a cashier from the beginning, my opening wage was $4.00 per hour. (At least I got my $.20 back.)

After that, I found that every time I trained for another department, I could get another $.25 raise. I had to wait about six months before I could do that the first time. I don't remember my first department I added but by April 1991, I was earning $4.25 per hour.

I worked hard for that raise and started working on getting trained for my next department.

April 1, 1991, the minimum wage increased to $4.25. People starting, without putting in the hard work that I did, started at my wage. They started at the point that I had worked hard to attain.

Again, I was very frustrated. When the minimum wage went up, I was essentially cheated out of $.45 per hour. Those who didn't work as hard or started later were earning the same amount.

Over the next year, I ended up being cross-trained in multiple departments and was making $5.50 per hour. It was a great wage at the time for a high-school student.

Now, as a business owner, I hate minimum wage, too. The only time I pay minimum wage is when I have an intern that is learning the ropes. Even then, I don't keep them at minimum wage more than 90 days. If they aren't qualified for more after 90 days then they aren't qualified to work for me.

What's more is that I pay them minimum wage when I can actually find interns that are willing and legally able to work as an intern free of charge to me. I don’t pay them minimum wage because I'm legally responsible to but because I want to give them something for their time. When they demonstrate they can perform, I move them to a permanent position and pay them above minimum wage.

I think that the bottom line is that I hate minimum wage because it devalues those that work hard to get ahead in the workplace. If the minimum wage goes up, no one in my company will get paid more. The only financial impact on my employees will likely be the potential of increasing their cost of living.

I think, even in a struggling economy, there is plenty of work for the person that is willing to do what it takes to stand out in the crowd. In 1932, at the beginning of the great depression, the unemployment rate was 23.6%. That means that 76.4% of the population was working. (source). The unemployment rate today is 7.6%, which means that 92.4% of the people who want to work are working. (source)

If we continue to raise the minimum wage, we are simply going to make it harder for those that strive to be successful to get ahead.

Over the last six years, I've been building websites. Primarily, I've been building websites for other people.

In reality, I should be clear. Most of the websites Tribute Media has built have not been built by me. They have been built by my very talented staff.

When I set out to redesign this website with it's new design, I felt it was important that I build it myself. I had some very specific reasons why I needed to be the one to actually do the work.

I always council leaders of companies to not build thier own marketing campaigns. In fact, on page 77 of my book, I quote myself when I say, "Whenever I see a bad logo design, I think, 'The CEO must have designed that.'"

Any business leader should focus on running the business and not taking the time handling things that his team should handle. However, I've felt it very important that I understand everything that my team has to do. I've taken the time to learn so that I can be a support to my team. This website was a golden opportunity for me to learn something new and find new ways to help my team members when they need it.

When I rebuilt my website earlier this month, there were a number of key things I wanted to try. In the coming weeks, I'll write a post about the tech side of things but this post has a focus on the business implications of why I did what I did.

I am a firm believer that in order for a boss to truly be able to lead his team, he has to understand what his team does on a daily basis. Without understanding how the team works or what they have to do to be successful then I believe he cannot lead them to growth.

Think of it like a coach for a sports team. Most coaches start as players. In fact, at some level, all great coaches have played a lot in their life. Even if they didn't play professionally, they understand the world the player lives in because they lived in it themselves at some level.

This website represents the most complicated website that I have personally ever designed and built.

Now, for you designers and web developers out there, you might laugh that I say that because you might have a greater level of understanding than I do and think that what I've done here is no mean feat.

For a couple people on my team, what I've done here is not overly complicated. And sure, I recognize that. However, remember, I'm not a web designer. I'm not a developer. I'm a businessman first and foremost. At best, I dabble in web design. At best, I consider myself a hack.

In fact, the artistic side of this website wouldn't have happened without the artistic direction of our very talented illustrator/designer. Some of the cool effects like the way the website scrolls wouldn't have happened without a very talented developer on my team that started teaching me the ropes in JavaScript a month or so ago.

Because I took the time to build this website myself, I now have a greater appreciation for what it takes to build a website people can be proud of.

You may not like the way this website is designed. In fact, I've already heard from a few of you. However, for me, this website design represents far more than just my mug on too many pages. It means that I understand what my team has to put up with on a daily basis when I say, "Oh, come on, it can't be that hard."

When I work to understand what my team goes through to create, I can understand how hard they have to work to pull off my vision.

Nothing great comes without hard work. I believe in leading by working. I figure if I can spend the hours behind the scenes learning and preparing then when the times comes to help others, I'll be ready.