Project: The Bee’s Knees - RIP Burt Shavitz

He knows a thing or two on what it is to risk it all and lose it all. He’s had his highs and lows. Whether on his own or surrounded by one hundred fans, he knows who he is and what he wants out of life. This is the Burt Shavitz story.

What’s it like to wake up with no hot water but an endless sight of nature…and be okay with it? What’s it like to have a rendering of your grizzly face on beauty and toiletry items across the world? And yet feel inclined to hide from the world?

What’s it like to take risks, win some, lose a lot and come out knowing no matter what, you still like what you’ve done and made of yourself?

Although Burt is no longer with us, (May 15, 1935- July 5, 2015), he left a legacy that is worth emulating: “No one owns me, no one’s ever gonna own me.”

In other words, what I do? It’s none of your beeswax!

What are some practices in your life in which you practice a similar mentality? In which you stick to your dreams even when it is inconvenient.

• How do obtain your goal when the going gets tough?

• When there are more naysayers than cheerleaders, do you give up or give it all you got?

• If you realize you do not have the finances to see your project through, how do you pursue finding the appropriate resources?

• How do you cultivate your own beeswax?

Burt was a man that was dealt some hard blows. But he found a place on this earth that he loved more than the inside of a Burt’s Bees industrial warehouse. He didn’t need many luxuries; he didn’t need validation; he didn’t need money; he needed a chance to pursue his number one passion.

What’s your passion, and what are you willing to risk to find and cultivate it?

Burt will go down in history as the bee’s knees of a beekeeper. What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

-The Green Couch 

Project: Understanding Your Limitations

It has been one week since S. Truett Cathy, founder and longtime chairman of Chic-fil-A, passed away.

While many of us mourn his passing, he has left us with an astounding legacy and invaluable truths. The most prominent, I believe, is recognizing and acknowledging one’s limitations and humbly accepting them.

In Cathy’s case, he even self-deprecatingly integrated his into the scrumptious Chic-fil-A’s trademark slogan so that we may never forget it, though we never have realized it until now.

“We didn't invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich.”

Not only did they acknowledge what came first (the chicken), they also gave credit where credit is due; two vital elements to success.

1)    Know that you are always borrowing a piece of someone else’s innovation.

2)    And then pay tribute to them.

No matter how many accreditations, degrees, master degrees and Ph.D.’s you pursue and achieve, when you hang these on your office walls, you will never have an opportunity to invent the chicken. You have to understand your limitations.

Living 93 years, Cathy’s seen, implemented and endeavored to incorporate many financial and innovative practices in his business, thus influencing the general and mainstream culture. Not everything succeeded. And for every failure we may have seen come across the menu board, how many more have come across Chic-fil-A’s board of directors – but at one point or time, they learned their limitations.

So ask yourself:

1)    What’s your chicken?

2)    What’s your chicken sandwich?

3)    How are you going to market a cow to make others eat more of that chicken sandwich?

4)    What invaluable truth will be part of your company legacy?

While it seemed S. Truett Cathy ate, slept and breathed his company we, too, need to take a moment to evaluate and prioritize, we need to ask ourselves, how important is our business? Then maybe, just maybe, that chicken sandwich will taste a little better, and the chicken will not taste so bitter.

-The Green Couch Project