Build 2 libraries, win a HTC smartphone & a literary agent’s critique of your masterpiece

Donate $10 through Passports With Purpose and you will be entered to win a HTC 7 Surround smartphone and 50-page manuscript or proposal critique and a follow-up phone call with literary agent Jon Sternfeld of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

Books Matter

I have 30 books in one arm and my two-year-old daughter, who is wearing her princess frog pajamas, in the other.

This is our morning routine. We get up. We read. She’ll “read” to herself and then she’ll have Annie or myself read to her. She must read 40 books a day.

A 2010 study published in “Research in Social Stratification and Mobility journal” highlighted the importance of books in the home:

Growing up in a home with 500 or more books offers a…

"I can't help everyone, but I can help some."

As much as I love meeting students at universities when I visit to speak, meeting the faculty is pretty cool too.

After a recent talk at West Texas A&M I had a chance to talk travel with a few faculty. One of the professors was a horse trainer who told a hilarious story about being invited to Saudi Arabia to judge racing camels. Another was Dr. James Hallmark, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. James (we’re Facebook friends, so I’ll drop the formalities) told a rip-roaring tale about traveling in Turkey and how he thought he had been abducted by al Qaeda.

Following my visit, James wrote an editorial for the Amarillo Globe News about my visit. In Consider Where Our Clothes Are Made James writes…

The profit will go somewhere

If you buy this piece of crap, a percentage of the proceeds will go to helping orphaned puppies achieve their dreams of catching rainbows.

How much will go there and how will you know if I follow through with this? You can trust me. I’m a guy that loves orphaned puppies; how could you NOT trust me?

Shopping Greifportunities

This is my biggest beef with social entrepreneurs. Most of the time there is a complete lack of transparency and accountability.

The Colbert Report did a bit on “Shopping Greifportunities” last night with a focus on 9/11 stuff. You can buy 9/11 shoes, merlot, a chessboard with firefighters and police officers going at it, and even a dog collar (in dog years the tragedy was only 1 ½…

The coolest 9.11 logo you'll ever see

Ten years ago I was in Australia and had no idea about the tragedies that hit my homeland until I read about them in a newspaper on September 12th.

In honor of the 10th anniversary, Team, Red, White, and Blue — a patriotic bunch with a running problem — is hosting a memorial run. They had Justin Ahrens and Rule29, the designers of my site, design an awesome logo for the event. It’s one of the coolest logos I’ve seen commemorating the events of 9.11.

…

Fire Eaters Wanted

What do you like to do?

Do you enjoy planning events, taking photos, editing videos, designing posters, playing guitar, playing video games, fire eating, sword swallowing, or working with spreadsheets?

I don’t mean to knock volunteering in a soup kitchen or swinging a hammer to frame a house, but that’s not the best way for me to use my time. Like BJ I don’t have a ton of time. I’ve got a two-month-old baby boy and a two-year-old daughter. (That’s a lot of diapers!) And I have to be very selfish with my time. Volunteering is an important part of my life, but I only have so much time,…

Announcing LeadershipBoard.org: Follow your passion & lead the way:

Asking the wrong questions about TOMS Shoes

I’m quoted in a LA Weekly story on TOMS shoes.

Since I’ve started to think about and research TOMS my stance has been best summed up as such: the problem isn’t shoelessness; it’s poverty.

At the best TOMS is addressing a symptom of poverty, not poverty itself. At the worst, TOMS is exploiting those living in poverty to sell shoes and hindering the local shoe business of their giving locations by giving away free shoes.

The author of the piece, Patrick McDonald, even gave me the last word on TOMS in the piece:

“You see the impact of how a job can change lives,” says Timmerman, “of how it can give a person dignity.”

He adds,…

Team, Red, White, and Blue on the Today Show

Team, Red, White, and Blue was featured on the Today Show! It was great to see many of my teammates from the American Odyssey relay race highlighted.

There’s a divide between civilian life and life in the military. It’s not easy for civilians to appreciate the level of commitment and honor our troops have, and, in turn, it’s not easy for injured veterans to transition to life as a civilian. Team, Red, White, and Blue tackles both of these issues.

Learn how to become an athlete, donor, and/or advocate with Team RWB.