It all started in the 7th grade at the annual talent show. I remember this vividly. One of the 8th graders got up on stage with an electric guitar and played some riffs on the guitar. A few weeks later, a friend of mine was doing a music report on the band Van Halen. As part of the presentation, he had brought in Van Halen’s Live album from 1993. He said he didn’t like the album and would be willing to sell it to me for $5.

I didn’t know much about Van Halen at that time other than knowing some of their biggest hits. I remember thinking that even those hits were a little cheesy. But I put in this live album when I got home and I heard some of the riffs that the 8th-grader had played in the talent show. But this guitar solo on this Van Halen live album was unlike anything I had ever heard. It was 12 minutes long and it blew me away.

I had a friend at that time whose brother was a huge Van Halen fan. He had the live concert video. I remember watching Eddie play the guitar on that video and I was mesmerized. For the first song, Eddie Van Halen took a drill and let the electronic waves of the drill make a sound through his electric guitar. Who thinks of that? And to watch Eddie perform his guitar solo on this video was just unbelievable.

I made it a point right then to learn how to play that solo on the guitar.

And that is what I set out to do. I found a guitar teacher who happened to be the youth pastor at my church. I walked in the first day and said I wanted to learn how to play the 12 minute Eddie Van Halen solo. I have a strong music background, so I knew it wasn’t totally out of reach.

I spent the next 6 months learning that solo. I learned how to finger tap before learning most chords. I didn’t bother with scales as they weren’t necessary in the solo. At the end of 6 months, I pretty much had the solo down. There are still some parts that are near impossible to mimic because Eddie is so talented. I can still play the solo.

But, from there, I picked up the acoustic guitar. Because of Eddie, I led the music at my high school youth group, college ministry, played guitar in weddings, in restaurants and bars, and now all over the world with my wife. I don’t know that I would have picked up the guitar to that extent had it not been for Eddie Van Halen.

While learning Eddie’s solo, I quickly picked up every Van Halen album available. Over the past 10+ years, I have seen Van Halen perform live 3 times. Once with Sammy Hagar. Once with Gary Cherone. And once with David Lee Roth.

I first heard Van Halen on their live album with Sammy Hagar, so Hagar continues to be my favorite Van Halen singer of them all. Hagar had a great line in the Van Halen Live video. He said, “to sing from the heart is the most direct form of communication.” He went on to say that painting or playing an instrument creates a barrier between the feeling and the output, whereas with singing, it is just straight out of you as a person. I thought that was a cool way of looking at it.

In 2007, I took a trip to Cabo San Lucas and went to Cabo Wabo. That was pretty cool. No one from Van Halen was there, but it was cool to be in Mexico where Van Halen and Sammy the Red Rocker had performed a number of times.

Last year, I read an article about Eddie that saddened me deeply. The article described Eddie in just a horrible state. He would wake up and start drinking, speak incoherently, and pretty much just waste away. I was saddened because in some strange way I care about the guy. He had such a big impact on my life and I hated reading about him wasting away with alcohol.

I had a great experience just a few weeks ago in Florida. I was driving down the road and was flipping through channels. I knew the newest Van Halen album was set to be released in the near future, but I didn’t know that any of the songs were out yet. While flipping radio stations, I heard a song come on that sounded like David Lee Roth. The guitars were just playing the main melody, so I hadn’t heard anything that identified the song as Van Halen. That is until the solo. It was classic Eddie. I had chills and I turned up the volume even more. The song was Tattoo. It was just a brilliant experience. Here, I thought Van Halen was over. I thought I had heard the last new song by Van Halen. And here they are jamming away like it was the 80′s. Eddie can still kick out a solo.

I purchased the new album last week and am enjoying Tattoo and Stay Frosty. Stay Frosty reminds me of Ice Cream Man from Van Halen’s first album. That was the album with Eruption. That was the album that launched a thousand guitarists.

I know the media likes to poke fun at Tebow’s faith, but his faith is real. This is not a fad in Tim’s life. It is his life.

That is an overriding theme of this book. I think a lot of people look at Tebow and think that now that he has this huge platform, he’s trying to push his faith on everyone. That’s not it at all. This is Tim Tebow. This is how he has been since he was young. His parents and family have had an extraordinary impact on him and they are all the real deal. Fame has not all of a sudden turned him into a new proselytizer.

I enjoyed reading this book and was really inspired by Tim’s life. Here are some of the topics that stuck out to me:

Parenting

Tebow’s parents did some really smart things with their children for the purpose of building character. For instance, they instituted a rule whereby the children were not allowed to talk about themselves unless someone brought up the topic first. Another thing was that the children were given $1 if someone complimented that child on an issue of character and humility. And after winning huge football games, Tim’s parents would praise him more for the kind things he did with children before and after the game than his performance on the field.

Football

I told a friend the other day that reading Tebow’s book was similar to reading the book about Steve Jobs. College football and Apple products have been a steady part of my life over the past 10 years. So, it’s amazing to read about the development process of an Apple product that I use. Similarly, this book has a lot of commentary on big college football games. These are games that I watched. It’s really neat to read Tebow’s point of view about these big games. You also learn about things you had no idea were going on during a particular game. The emotions, the pain, the relationships. You usually read people’s books after their careers are over. It was neat reading a book from someone who is really just starting at least at the professional level.

Work Ethic

I liked reading about Tebow’s philosophy on why he works so hard. If God gave him a particular talent, then he is going to develop that talent to the fullest. It’s like Steve Prefontaine’s famous quote:

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Here is how Tebow says it:

“I may say I’m playing for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. True. But it’s not just that. It’s about going out every day, in every setting, and working hard. It’s about being dedicated and playing hard because I honestly believe God receives joy when He sees me doing that with the skills he blessed me with. When you, too, do that, He sees you living the life He has given you and loving and respecting the abilities He’s given you by working as hard as you possibly can to improve them.

He also constantly quotes this voice in his head that says:

“Somewhere he is out there, training while I am not. One day, when we meet, he will win.”

Leadership

Tebow is relatively young but is constantly described as wise beyond his years. You really see that come through in this book. As the quarterback, he has a huge influence on the team around him. He really cares about the other guys on the team, cares about their souls and cares about their change to optimize their abilities. It seems as though Tebow can walk on to a team and completely change the dynamic of a team. Guys want to follow him. Guys want to work harder because of him. And Tebow takes this in stride by working as hard or harder than anyone else on the team.

The Media

The media has constantly told Tebow he couldn’t do it. What’s interesting is that it seems like Tebow is harder on himself than any member of the media could ever be on him. Therefore, the chatter doesn’t really affect him. If anything, the negativity pushes him harder. He answers to God and to Tim Tebow. I’m sure he’s affected by some things, but his focus is in the right place so that he’s not rocked by negative comments.

Overall, I recommend this book to people who want to get to know the real Tim Tebow. If you are a college football fan, especially an SEC fan, then this book will be hard to put down. I was also encouraged in my faith by reading this book.

Having worked for myself and for the man, and seeing the current job situation, today’s worker must be more versatile than even just a few years ago.

My friend Jacob Dearolph put it well the other day. The modern worker must be comfortable working for a company and comfortable working for themselves. They must be willing to take a job when the right one comes around but also be able to make it on their own should they not get hired or should it be time for them to move on. I’ve seen so many people stuck in their jobs. They aren’t learning anything new. They hate their bosses. But they have nothing else to go to.

Likewise, there are many people out of college now who can’t get work. Instead of joining occupy protests, they should be learning how to start their own company. They should be moving ahead with an idea, a product, or a service and figuring out how to serve people with that good or service. People pay for goods or services that create value.

I had a meeting with a client recently where she described a colleague who refused to use social media with the company because he said he was an accountant and not a marketer. These sort of distinctions are not really possible in this day in age. And in the future, that accountant is going to have a harder time competing against accountants who do understand marketing.

At the core, this shift in thinking has to do with marketing. Whether someone works for a company or for themselves, they are building a brand. At a company, they are building the company’s brand. For themselves, they are building their own brand or their own company brand. The shift here is that even when someone is working at a company, they need to be building their own brand. They need to be learning new skill sets and realizing that they may need to use these skills working for themselves some day.

The premise of the book is obviously that we are Born to Run. The simplicity of the premise along with the exciting ultra races, tribes, and running styles opened up a whole new running world to me.

For example, I had never heard of barefoot running before. I had never heard of ultra-running (100 mile races). I had never heard of the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico.

Since reading the book, I have been running more and have been enjoying it a lot more. I have recommended this book to nearly every runner I know.

The author, Chris McDougall, embarked on the writing of this book after experiencing debilitating running injuries. He asked a simple question. With all of our new shoe technology since the 1970′s, why have running injuries continued? In his search for the answer, he came across a Mexican tribe who would go do 100 mile fun runs. In sandals! Why could this tribe

The answer seemed to be due to a few factors. One, they don’t wear cushioned shoes. And secondly, they love running. They didn’t run to lose weight or reach a goal. They simply love running.

But to get to these answers, you get to read about some exciting races, intriguing characters, and new theories about running in a healthy way. This book gave me confidence to listen to my body when running. The body is pretty good at telling you if something is wrong.

I’m now reading a book on barefoot running after becoming aware of it and intrigued by it due to this book.

If you are a runner, this book is a must-read.