The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
he offered a final few words of assurance: “Here’s my best advice: make the little decisions with your head and the big ones with your heart. Do that, and you’ll be just fine.”
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
These expectations of excellence became the tent poles that formed our values, and our values then guided the choices we made. They served as a constant reminder that to achieve exceptional things, you must hold yourself to exceptional standards, regardless of what others may think.
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
As Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Live not in dreams, but in contemplation of a reality that is perhaps the future.”
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Weak speakers look down at the floor, good speakers look up but scan the room, great speakers make eye contact selectively, and exceptional speakers deliver every complete thought directly to one person in the audience, making that person feel like the center of the room—and then they move on and do it again. We’ve all been in that position when a
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I was blown away because his question was so different from any that we had heard before. “How can I help each of you best accomplish your goals with Pencils of Promise?” he asked with sincerity.
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Purpose is found when you stop thinking about how you exist in the world and start trying to figure out why you are here. Once you solve that question, everything else will fall into place.
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Take advantage of the freedom that comes with your youth. Inhale life, exhale fire, and embrace the late, sleepless nights, because that’s when the magic happens—when everyone else is asleep and you’re awake thinking about the world as it is, and the world as it could be. Make the most of those moments,”
Adam Braun • The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Regardless of age or status, if you’re not satisfied with the path you’re on, it’s time to rewrite your future. Your life should be a story you are excited to tell.