The Art of Being a Pig

“If you call one of our players a pig he’ll probably come up and high-five you!”
- Kyle Whittingham

The Art of Being a Pig

My friend Sandra Johnson owned her own advertising firm when I met her. She worked for the firm I was with, so I had the great pleasure of getting to know her. What I love most about Sandra is her great sense of humor and her ability to see things from a different point of view. For example, one Christmas knowing that my friend Brad loved dogs, she gave him a beautifully framed poem entitled, “Things One Can Learn From A Dog.”


When it came my turn to open a gift we all laughed in delight when I received the same gift, but with all the words changed from dog to hog and the rest of the body changed to reflect the difference between a dog and a hog. It still enjoys a prominent place on my office wall! You may wonder why?


A few years ago I became interested in hog farming so I spent quite a bit of time touring hog farms and studying them. Sandra knew this and was very humored by it since I had never hog farmed before. She just couldn’t picture me as a hog farmer.


When one of her associates misspelled my middle name as Gordan rather than Gordon, Sandra immediately dubbed me, “Dan the Hog Farmer.” This name has stuck with me for almost fifteen years now! In fact, when I was working in New York I went to a restaurant one morning and saw a group of people from Salt Lake City.


The group had come for a Theater Tour. As it turned out, I had a couple of friends in the group so I was able to recognize that they were from Salt Lake. It was wonderful to see them so I came over to say hello and talk for a while. My friends were kind enough introduce me to other members of their group. And, this led to a most unexpected turn of events.


I was introduced to one woman in the group and she got the most surprised look on her face. Since I had never met her before you can imagine this took be back a little! Then it became clear.


She looked at me and exclaimed, “You’re Dan the Hog Farmer?”


My stunned reply was a simple, “Yes.”


Then, said she, “Sandra Johnson has told me all about you. I didn’t expect to meet you in New York City and dress in a suit!” I have laughed at this turn of events for a long time but, I hadn’t thought of this experience for years, because I’m no longer interested in Hog Farming, until this week.


A group of my friends and I had the chance to talk with Kyle Whittingham, Head Coach of the University of Utah Football Team. During our meeting Kyle was asked, “What did you do to inspire your team to have a perfect 13-0 season last year?”


That’s when Kyle said, “I don’t have to inspire them. We recruit great young men. But, if you call one of our players a pig he’ll probably come up and high-five you!”


Then he went on to explain that he taught them about breakfast. “I told them that when they look down at their breakfast, the eggs on the plate came from a chicken. The bacon or ham on the plate came from a pig. The chicken gave a little bit of herself, but the pig was totally committed.” He said. Commitment is the basis for Coach Whittingham’s team. He has created a culture of total commitment.


But, there is something else he has done. He has surrounded his players with great coaches. They are men of skill and ability. They are men who have played the game and are now able to transfer their experience to the players they coach.


While I listened to Coach Whittingham I learned something about pigs I never really examined during the days I was known as “Dan the Hog Farmer.” I learned that there is art to being a great pig and that art can be used to help in many other areas of my life.


To be successful, I need to be committed to a successful outcome and I need to surround myself with people who have successfully done what I hope to do. Then I need to be willing to do what they ask me to do and to perform with accountability and faith.


There were two games where the Utah Football Team had to come from behind in the remaining minutes and seconds of the game to win. Coach Whittingham said, “The team had no doubt they could do it.”


I have no doubt you can do it! You can be successful! Make a commitment, surround yourself with a great coaching staff and have faith in yourself.


In short, go out there and be a pig!

The Man in The Grocery Store

“We’re making more money now than ever before.”
- Rachel Nipper

The Man in the Grocery Store

I know a lot of people who have been going through some hard times over the past two or three years. It’s always hard for me to see friends struggle and lose their confidence. The bad news is it’s hard for some. The good news is that the time of pain has ended for others and they are now in the process of healing. I’m old enough now that I’ve have been through this kind of pain/healing cycle before, and I view it a little differently than I did when I was much younger because of one man.



I’ll never forget standing in a grocery store line in Southern California in 1978 getting ready to pay for my groceries. As I stood waiting, I began to read the news paper there on the rack. I was alarmed by the headlines and could feel fear enter my entire body as I gazed at the grim news.



Those were troublesome days. We were struggling through one of the worst gas shortages ever faced in the United States and there seemed to be a war on the horizon. The high cost of gas was one problem but the larger problem was that there wasn’t enough gas. There were days when we would wait in line for four or five hours and hope there was gas left when we got to the pump. Many times I had waited only to have the station attendant put a “last car” sign on the car in front of me!



One of my close friends, a physician who would drive from Orange County to LA County every day for work, would have his teen aged daughter take the car and wait in the gas line every evening; she could do her home work while doing a huge favor for her father. It was difficult for the entire family, but they pulled together and made it through the gas shortage.



The gas shortage wasn’t what was on my mind as I stood and read headlines in the check-outline. Those headlines were even scarier to me because it looked as if the United States was heading to war and I just happened to be the right age to be drafted.



On the day I said I would never forget, in the grocery store line, there was a man standing behind me. He must have seen a look of fear on my face because he started to talk with me. After a little small talk, I confessed to him that I was really scared. Then I watched his face change and I witnessed a new power build within him. His serious tone sprung out as a crescendo as he said, “I fought in World War II.”



“We were scared then, just as you are now. But, we did what we needed to do, and so will you when the time comes.”



He said those words with such surety I believed him through and through. He gave me courage and hope. He had lived through dark times and had prepared the way for me to have a bright future. I was grateful to him then for his encouraging words and service and I’m still grateful to him these many years later. One of the strange things about my gratitude is that I’ve never even known his name, or anything else about him. So, he has forever remained “the man in the grocery store” to me.



Now I’m passing his words of hope and courage to you. I hope they’ll comfort you the way they’ve comforted me. They have proven to be true hundreds of times over throughout my life.



My friends Mark and Rachel Nipper are the perfect example of The Grocery Store Man’s truth. A little over a year ago Mark lost his job and things looked bleak for their little family. There were days when they didn’t think they would be able to make it through their struggles.



Today I’m happy to say that not only did they make it through their dark time, they’re thriving. Just this week Rachel said, “We’re making more now than we ever have!” They’re building their bright future together and creating a solid foundation for their two sons. You can do it too!



I saw another head line in the news this week. It read, “Unemployment 8. 5%.” But, what it said to me was, “91.5% of the people in the U.S. are employed!” I thought that was great news because almost all of us are still doing well.



Yes, I know you’re scared. I’ve been scared too, but I’ve always done what I needed to do and so have you. So, the next time you’re standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, pass on the good news!

The Process of Unfolding

“The challenges I’ve faced in my life have created opportunities to grow and become more powerful.”
- Steve Farley

Use Life’s Challenges to Unfold Personal Power

I ‘m just learning to develop my personal ability to enjoy a life process I call “unfolding.” The best way I can describe unfolding is to give you a small example you may have already experienced for yourself.

If you’re like me, you’ve had the regular chance to strip the old linens from you bed and replace them with freshly laundered ones. And, if you’re like me, this has’nt been one your most loved chores! While this is still the case for me, it changed markedly when I got a cat.

My cat goes by several names; Binx (my name for him), Simba (my children’s name for him), and Bobby (my wife’s name for him). We have had this cat now for fourteen years so it doesn’t matter what name he goes by; he’s an institution in our household.

I call him an institution because there is no other way we would have put up with him this long! He has never been a very friendly cat and has had a “bad attitude” ever since we rescued him from the animal shelter. Yet, even with his nasty disposition he has clawed his way into our hearts and now these many years later he has mellowed a great deal.

When he first came to live with us, my young daughters were so terrified of him that they could not go to bed unescorted. He would lie in wait for them to make their way to their beds and spring just at the right moment to attack their bare, unprotected feet. That’s when I began to discover his power to teach me the principle of unfolding!

This nightly ritual had a tendency to put our children’s beds into a horribly rumpled state. And, since bedraggled bedding sort of impels one to tidy things up a bit, my wife and I were always in the bed making business, or so it seemed.

Since I perceived this bed making to be an unpleasant task, I’m quite sure I became as grumpy as our bad-attitude-cat. There is no question that this cat had a thing about beds from the beginning of our relationship and that relationship reached a crescendo a little over twelve years ago when he attacked me in my own bed in the middle of the night.

There I was, sleeping away when I felt something wet running down my arm! I leapt from my bed and began chasing the cat throughout the house yelling, “I’m going to tear your head off!”
Soon, my children and wife were chasing me, chasing the cat, crying and begging me not to kill the cat. Gladly, cooler heads prevailed and the cat kept on living so he could continue to teach me about unfolding in a more playful way.

By now you can see that my life had turned into the life of a bed chamber maid because I was spending time daily tidying up our beds. But, that’s when something curious started to happen. When the cat saw the activity of making a bed, he would jump up onto the bed so as to be trapped under the sheets! This is when he would be the most playful and have fun. It’s also when we would have the most fun with the cat.

The interesting thing is that we were only doing the additional work as a result of the cat and that the work then became a game. As you can see from this story, the cat created a number of challenges for me and my family. At the same time, the challenges created the opportunity for us to discover new joy and happiness we would not have discovered otherwise.

This reveals the important concept I talked with you about earlier, the process of unfolding. The process of unfolding is: It is impossible for a person to see everything at once. The path of life can only be wholly revealed in stages or pieces. Once I began to understand this process I began to relax more and look at the unfolding as a game or fun.

The fun comes from the knowledge that unfolding creates anticipation. The anticipation can only come as a result of being “blind to the future.” Once I started viewing the process of unfolding as a game, it became easier for me to accept and enjoy!

I know you’ve had challenges in your life and that will not change. Now that you have been introduced to the process of unfolding you can begin to use the process to your advantage. Know that there is no way for you to see all the answers you’re seeking right now; especially while you may be severely challenged! Know that by paying attention to the process of unfolding you will have important things revealed to you just when you need them. Cherish this knowledge and use it as a comfort now and in the future.

There may be cats waiting to attack your bare feet in the dark, but those same cats may be able to provide you with joy and happiness in the near future. I know this is a true principle; look to it to for understanding, strength and anticipation of a great future!