Success Formula - Michael Jordan Style

Michael Jordan's early days in basketball were less than glorious. In fact most of us would never have expected him to ever accomplish even anything remotely close to the level of success he enjoys even to this day in terms of notoriety, and market value even after his final NBA game was on April 16, 2003 in Philadelphia. 

Click The Image For Fifteen more Inspiring Stories of Failures that lead to Eventual Success.

Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team as a child, driven to the point of tears because of his intense desire to succeed in the midst of his early failure in a sport he would come to eventually dominate not just in the United States with the Chicago Bulls and several other teams - but as a global figure representing the essence of NBA success to people everywhere.

One key component to his amazing success was that he kept showing up, and kept taking shots. In Jordan's own words:
"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot,

Two years of growth, and joy to go with it!

Two years ago today, I officially took the hand of my bride publicly for the first time. We said vows, exchanged a kiss, and walked out of Greater Love, our church in Japan. Then we headed to Sendai Japan, for our honeymoon, less than a week before a huge earthquake and tsunami would totally change the landscape of the very city we celebrated our new marriage in. Then we spent four weeks recovering, half of which was without hot water or electric. We made it through that. And we've made it through the first two years, with no plans to look back ever! Sarah and I are blessed, and we hope you are too! 

Happy Anniversary Sarah. 
I love you, now, always, and forever!

Cheers.

Improvement: What does it mean to you?

 Look up the word "improvement"on Google, and this is what you'll get: A definition, and over five million search results. For my own search, I also had ten "personal" results. One of them was an improvement post put out by YAFCA, and the others were either from friends in the online and local community, or from various products and services I use or care about.
The reason I was curious about the topic of improvement is because lately I feel like I have been doing a lot of this in my own life.
 The funny thing is that nothing at all has changed yet in my life. Things are by in large identical now to the way they were a few months ago - business as usual. So what, then has improved?
Well I'm glad you asked. It's my attitude. Although all my life I have been taught, and generally have had a good attitude... that was all I strove to have. Sure, a good attitude is what they tell you to have in school, and on the sports teams most of us grew up playing on. And a good attitude about things goes well with others. Having a good attitude will set you apart from those who are negative or pessimistic about the situations they encounter as they navigate life.
But what about having the best possible attitude about life that you possibly can? I mean really, would you rather have good grades, or great ones?
I'd rather have great ones. Funny thing is, when it comes to academics, I am open to admitting that it's honestly not my strong suit. I am admittedly averse to structured learning, especially in a classroom environment. I am much more inclined to soaking up a new topic I stumbled upon myself, and decided to learn through online research, usually with something like Wikipedia,