As we sit and wrestle with ourselves, we have to reflect on what is crucial. So much of our lives get lost in a lack of perspective. We could have a great family, we could have a hard-earned job, but nothing takes away that sense of accomplishment and achievement faster than the cold, creeping grasp of past mistakes. There’s so much to be thankful for, even in the smallest of things.

Let’s make this personal, in a universe so great and vast, you’re going to be the only you that has and will ever exist. To draw even greater perspective, if we take the average of 100,000,000,000 stars per galaxy and the average of 6 planets per solar system, that equals roughly 6,000,000,000,000 planets per solar system, and I won’t bore you with the moons. The fact that your collection of carbon and other elements exists, consciously here on this earth is incredible. Just think about that in the overall scheme of that. It’s so hard for our minds to wrap around that.

There are plenty of times when I don’t care, and then there are times when I do. I begin overthinking things, begin to initiate that process and I realize that it’s my perception of what others think of me that is weighing so heavily. It’s not even known quantities of deprecation from my peers or strangers that cause this self-doubt; it’s worrying what others MAY think. I have to remind myself that I can’t know what they are thinking, and I can’t let myself get engaged with this perpetual circle of anxiety.

Look around at all this stuff, if someone doesn’t care; it shows a lack of engagement with their struggles or their peers. Where are their thoughts or ambitions? Should we care more? Rather than a brusque or discourteous dismissal, imagine if we took the time to pay attention to what’s going on around us and engage with our peers or strangers. Imagine what we might learn or experience.

I came up the stairs one day and see this girl, Kay, she was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she says, “They’re laying everyone off.” I didn’t have any real idea of what she meant. So I start walking through this sea of cubicles, and in a plant of about 125 people—it’s a good-sized lumberyard—that makes for a lot of cubicles. Being the low man on the totem poll, I had my space all the way in the back.

I used to run all the time; I’ve recently started getting back into it. I’d try to beat the younger guy; I’d try to beat the older guy. But you always know you pushed yourself when you got that almost sick feeling of your endorphins dumping into your gut. I’d try to do a hundred more of one activity, I’d try to do a minute faster at this distance—there was always something worth striving to achieve. You didn’t always make it, sometimes you’d go a few days and maybe you made it in ten minutes on a Monday but you were coming in at eleven and twelve on a Tuesday and Thursday. Well, you have to look at it compared to where you were—at thirteen or fourteen minutes the previous week. Life is a lot like that, it has its ups and downs and you can’t always control when they happen.

When I sold this floor truss machine, I made 25,000 dollars, couple years later I would’ve been lucky to pass it off for $5,000. By this time I’ve moved all of my operations to my plant in Warsaw. (By March of 2009 housing starts to plummet to less than 500,000 annually) Then suddenly two years pass and I look like the smartest guy in the room as everything collapses. The market is no longer crushing it and things are getting bleak. No one could have predicted that things would have gone the way that they did and lasted so long.

How often have you heard the phrase, “Do what’s right” and dismissed it as an overused platitude? In my life, I’ve learned to treat my wife, my family, my employees, my customers, and anyone I encounter with the same degree of outstanding character. Doing so has made all the difference.