God – Yes, I believe in God and He is priority number 1 in my life.  

Family – My family is my everything.  I will work less, earn less, drive less, and live with less in order to spend more time with my family.  My family rocks. 

Character – No – I’m not perfect.  But I believe in being a person of integrity and character.  When it comes to life, my family, my business, and my friends, character is always top priority. 

Diversity – I’m a white brotha, my wife is Hispanic (latina flava), my daughter is a red-head, my son – brown skinned, and my other daughter is African-American. We are diverse – and I love it. A unified, diverse world makes life worth livin’.  

Having Fun – Life is way too short to not have fun.  I look for ways to have fun in every area of my life.  My work is fun, my family is fun, and my life is just flat fun.  I enjoy laughing, playing games, being with people and not taking myself too seriously. 

What are five things do you stand for? 

Okay, seriously, I just went jogging with my wife. We are both extremely competitive.  I was humbled to discover that she can CLEARLY out run me!  I tried my best to follow her all around the city and found myself winded and lagging behind! Ugh!  My lungs were burning like crazy, and my legs were extremely tired!  She whipped my tail!  But hey, you know what? I’m okay with that!!!  You know why?  Because I am a MAN!  That’s right – a man.  Now, if she had beaten me in an arm wrestling match – or a game of one on one – we’d have an issue!  Ha!

Competition is a fun part of life.  Many people are driven to "run" after their dreams - while others simply sit around thinking about them.  I hope you'll pursue your passion and run after your dreams. 

A close friend of mine, Cedric Ceballos, won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest back in 1992.  I remember watching his performance and I couldn’t believe my eyes.  One of the dunks he performed was appropriately called the “Hocus Pocus”. For this creative, jaw-dropping dunk, he was blindfolded as he ran from half court toward the hoop, launched into the air, and successfully jammed it through!  I stood up in my living room and started laughing and shouting – no stinkin’ way! 

The question I have always had, is could he really see?  Cuz you know, if he could see through the blindfold, that changes EVERYTHING! I have asked him over and over and he tells me it was the real deal. 

This got me to thinkin’, are you the real deal? Do you perform your work with integrity, ethics, and hard work?  Or do you cut corners, slack off, and look for ways to cheat the system.  As for my boy Ced, I believe he’s the real deal and believe in the hocus pocus!!! 

What do you think? 

In case you didn’t know – Shaquille O’neal is a freak of nature!  A super cool, big-hearted dude – but a beast, none-the-less.  The first time I saw him, he was a Laker (hate Lakers, urrr) and I was walking down the hall in the US Airways Center (home of the Phoenix Suns) in a hurry and needed to access the Laker locker room to do some work…slight problem, Shaq was in the hallway with media all around him. That’s right, a Shaq-sized obstacle was in my way!  So, what to do??? I first called my wife and told her that I had just laid eyes on the largest human being on earth! From there, I decided to “go around” the Shaq sized obstacle, which took some serious creativity.  Since then, big Shaq and I have become friends and he’s a pretty cool dude. 

Obstacles are a part of life – aren’t they? Maybe you have a Shaq-sized obstacle in life and you aren’t sure how you are going to get through it.  Trust me, press on, hang in there, one step at a time, and you will make it!  Stand strong! Speaking of stand strong – check out the hip hop song I wrote and recorded called, Stand Strong on iTunes – simply search “Travis Hearn” on iTunes.

One of the things I hear all the time is that today’s teenage generation is lazy. Most people think they are spoiled, disrespectful, unmotivated, and a couch potato/video game generation. I disagree. I believe today’s teen culture is the most creative, multitasking, hardworking, brilliant generation in a very long time. Today’s teenagers balance the life of the school, sports, family, internet, cell phones, texting, instant messaging, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and so much more making them a more connected and multitasking generation than ever before.  I personally don’t believe they are lazy; I believe they are misunderstood and under-challenged.

Last October, I spoke for one of the greatest organizations I’ve come across in a while – SkillsUSA. SkillsUSA is a national program that challenges and prepares students for real life by helping them select and develop a trade. I have to admit, these were some of the sharpest teenagers I have been around in a very long time.  Kudos to SkillsUSA and let the rest of us learn that today’s generation just needs to be challenged!

What you do think? Lazy?  Or Misunderstood and Underchallenged?