Josh Allred's Blog

It’s reinforced with every Marvel movie that heroes put on a mask, wear a cape and do some extraordinary act of courage. But that isn’t what makes someone a hero.

Few would put Jonas Salk or Johannes Guttenburg or Jacqueline Novogratz in this hero category yet there is no doubt they have made the world a much better place through their sacrifices.

What makes someone a hero is the legend that grows around someone’s story. It’s built on fantasy, illusion, and entertainment of someone we wish we could be–popular and important. We prop them up on a pedestal and memorialize them. With time, the legend grows…

Columbus was taught to me as a child that he was a hero for discovering the Americas. So much so, that we still celebrate this achievement with a holiday. Of course, he didn’t discover the Americas and now we know he enslaved and wiped out thousands of indigenous people. But the legend still grew…

Hollywood has skewed our view of what it means to be a hero. Heroes are made of the same stuff as you and me. No one is either an angel or a devil. Inside we are human and have a bit of both in us. Which story we tell, decides what category we put someone in.

Excuses and quitting go hand in hand. If there was no excuse to quit, we would just keep going. So, the question I have when someone reaches their breaking point is:

Are you quitting because you believe all these excuses or do you want to believe all these excuses because you are quitting?

The whole point of a guitar solo is that it is unscripted. That you are not following a formula. You are just feeling the music and applying the techniques you have learned to make something at the moment.

It is a risk because it might not work.

The reward, however, is that you do something for someone one time–creating a unique experience.

Super Bowl 50 was played one time. It isn’t rehearsed. You don’t know the outcome beforehand or what the other team is going to do.

This is different from say, Lion King. You have your script, your lines, you rehearse, now it is about executing the sequence perfectly.

Sequencing can be art. You only have to see the routine of a figure skater to see the elegance behind it.

Embracing the chaos, and not understanding the surety of outcomes, has another level to it.

That’s how you get a Jackson Pollock painting. The script, the routine, and the plays may be what is holding you back from free form.

Anyone can follow the script of a sales call but that doesn’t make them good at sales.

Most people don’t mind working hard, it is who they are working for.

People work tirelessly for those they love and for their art–even if it doesn’t pay.

The incentive for compensation can only take people so far before you look around and ask, “What’s it for?”

The deeper the love, the deeper the sacrifice someone is willing to make.

I’ve done my fair share of hiking over the years. And the thing that sticks out the most is when the activity that I have chosen to do “isn’t fun anymore.”

When things turn south, we look to escape. Our focus is no longer on the air we are breathing, the mountain views, or being outside with friends, but rather, how do we get back to the car as quickly as we can?

The trick that I have learned over the years is to remind myself this soon will all be over and you’ll be back at home wishing you were out there in the wild again. Soak in the moment because the next one will be here before you know it.

Don’t wish for the suffering to end, revel in it.

When teens walk through our doors, I don’t care what they have done but rather what are they going to do.

Too much of our culture has focused on the bad decisions in the past, the part we can’t change instead of focusing on what they can change–right here and right now.

Imagine this wheel you spun was going to determine how the rest of your life will go based on where it lands. That would be really stressful every time you went to spin it.

Unfortunately, every major life decision where we are uncertain of the outcome can feel this heavy. We think that this is my one shot and I better get it right.

Here is the good news: life isn’t just chance. You certainly have more options than you think–you just might not like the ones currently in front of you.

I am not talking about what you can get away with. Many rules are there to protect us. Driving without a seatbelt just doesn’t make sense. What I am talking about rather is learning which rules are important that make the culture function better and which ones push it forward.

Organizing a walkout at school will get you in all sorts of kinds of trouble but is it morally wrong? On the contrary, it might be imperative that you stand up and speak out.

Another example: Not giving a two-week notice to a job that treated you poorly that you worked for a month for because “that’s is what you are supposed to do” probably isn’t going to have much consequence. But many still do it because they are afraid of a gap in their resume.

When you realize the freedom one has is bigger than the box you create, possibility happens. Too often, we think we are handcuffed because our imagination tells us so.

The way it should read is:

“Companies love misery.”

How many toxic corporate cultures have you been in? Jobs can be miserable. For sure. But what really drives people to leave is the people around them.

Like many, you can experience misery but be in good company. The work can be somewhat sustainable with good attitudes around you.