Hey there, hi there and hello there everyone. I trust this last week has been wonderful, but I want to first wish Grandma & Grandpa Seda a happy 51st Anniversary ... holy schnikes. This time last year we were playing on the water slides at Wasserbahn; here's to many more years! Also, I forgot to wish Ryan a happy bday and happy anniversary to Kenny & Diane as well ... hope all was well! Kenny rolls in this week with a birthday as well, what a great couple of weeks!
The ol' Aflac work week flew by pretty quickly last week. We welcomed a new lady to our team, Haleigh Rentz, whom joins us with a great deal of experience and great team attitude. She is going to be a great addition to the team, I can already see her bringing us together even more. There was a lot of whirlwind (everyday activities) this week to get caught up in, but it was necessary. I left on Thursday all jazzed up after I saw everyone on the team piled in a cube figuring out a problem together, it was great ... this is what I got into business for! I was at Aflac for about 15 hours on Wednesday for a training class that went until 10pm, gotta love Root Cause Analysis. It was actually very interesting and should be useful in the job in the near future. We decided to make it a bit fun at work this week though by setting our goals as a team and having "arts & crafts time" to create a team scoreboard. We used construction paper, crayons and even came up with nicknames for everyone but I tell you what it did ... it is helping to make every single one of us accountable for our responsibilities. Whoever said you can't have fun while setting the bar high enough to be successful;) O, and yes we decided to have the theme of American Gladiators as our nicknames ... I am Lazer and the rest of the team is made up of Thunder (John), Tank (Adam), Turbo (Michael) and Helga (Haleigh). We will no longer answer to our birth names, only our Gladiator names ... good way to liven up the bunch.
We had a great SIFErs in Action meeting for those that could make it. I was given the opportunity to provide the "Morsel of Knowledge" which I will share with you later as the week's morsel ... sorry, I'm double dipping morsels. We set a goal for our group of completing 500 hours of community service within the first year of our group and we're well on our way with over 275 logged thus far! I also had another great Young Professionals meeting this week, one of those fancy "have a meeting for another meeting" meetings. The Miss Georgia Program finally came back from print and I helped sell a few over the weekend and they look fantastic if I do say so myself ... there's one thing to check off the bucket list (which I never even knew would make it). The best news of the week though came from the Aflac philanthropy department on Friday. I submitted a proposal to see if Aflac would contribute any corporate funds to the 2008 Flood Relief efforts back home since I could physically not be there to help and they called back on Friday to tell me that they would be making a $10,000 donation to the American Red Cross - Grant Wood Area Chapter in Cedar Rapids ... I about fell out of my seat knowing that a company 1,000 miles away would give back, fantacular! I just want to thank everyone back home again for providing me with so many stories of hope throughout this tragedy. It's hard not being able to be there to chip in, but makes me feel great to hear about how everyone is doing what they can to make a difference ... thank you!
Thanks to Dad's reference, I submitted my resume into Monster.com to become a Making it Count (http://www.makingitcount.com/) public speaker. Just this week, I found out that I was one of 250 out of the > 2,000 applicants selected to be one of their contracted speakers with the opportunity to participate in a training course in Indianapolis, IN. To make a long story short, colleges/high schools request one of many Making it Count programs to be presented at their school (ie: Setting Goals, Making the Most out of College, etc.) free of charge. I will drive there to present a 45-60 minute presentation on a wide array of topics ... and get paid for it, how amazing is that! I have to use my vacation days, but this is something I would love to do in the future, so I guess I'll see how the conference goes beginning of August ... more to come. Had a lot of outside time this weekend by the pool, on the tennis courts and today I was able to play at Grand National golf course in Abalama (that's how they say it in the South). I didn't shoot too bad and I even won a couple of skins ... ok maybe I lost a lot more, but I made a good effort.
This week is going to be a crazy/busy week at work with interviews and planning sessions, but it'll be amazing. I also am going to start moving out of my apartment soon and into a house with a pal of mine, John Mobley in Waverly Hall (close to Columbus). The place is on 18 acres with a pond and lots of land, now if we could just get some snow and a snowmobile it'd be perfect!
I wish everyone back in CR and Iowa the best of luck in the rebuilding of businesses, homes and of our city. I especially can't wait to help out my good pal Victor and Victor's Place! I leave you today with a poem that relates so well with everything that is going on in my life thus far:
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway!
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway!
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway!
The good you do today, will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway!
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway!
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway!
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for underdogs anyway!
What you spend years building up may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway!
People really need help, but will attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway!
Give the world the best you have and it may kick you in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway!
Alwayz,
Nate (ps, thanks for the smiles, freckles and dimple Jenny:)
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