I don’t want to type right now. I want to go to sleep and wake up in three days. But I watched the “Last Samurai” on last night back in Phoenix. I love movies that inspire me to be a better man. A camp of Samurais in the mountains of Japan held Tom Cruise’s character captive. He said that each person in the village dedicated their day to becoming excellent at what they do. He’d never seen so much dedication. Because of that dedication, they were excellent warriors.

There was one scene where Tom Cruise’s character is fending off six Samarais with a flag pole. He gets smacked down, but keeps getting back up. Oh man…that just is so awesome. Every guy wants to be in that situation, when you are supposed to be dead, but you still won’t die. I can’t explain the testosterone in that theater. It was good.

Outside of the theater, there are no swords to swing or fistfights to get into. But, I am in a battle that is more elusive. Victory is not always clear, because the battle is more complex than “kill and don’t be killed. ” It’s going to the studio each day and making the world a better place, one website at a time. It’s battling laziness and mediocrity. It’s about being excellent.

:::

I write this on an airplane from Detroit, Michigan, to Syracuse, New York. I left Arizona this morning when it was still dark. I woke a few hours later when we touched down in Detroit, covered with snow. I had a lonely lunch in the Detroit airport, then it’s back in the air. This is a quick flight, and we just dipped back below the clouds as we get closer to Syracuse. The land beneath me seems so quite and peaceful. It’s getting dark. I’ve spent this entire day in air.

But tonight I’m going to give it my all. This is my last talk for this calendar year, so I have to give it my all. I have to. My brother Peter has made it three weeks without a cigarette. I am so proud of him. Candyce is in the last week of a semester-from-hell. Adam has been in meetings all day to make version2 of LifeTeen.com a reality. Matt Maher is playing his heart out in Canada for a 10-year anniversary of Life Teen in Vancouver.; We are on a team, and I have to give it all I have.