This job is not only about saving lives. This is a quality of life mission. 
We are here to bring the best of humanity to the worst of conditions. 
Once we can grasp this, the concept of deeds over words becomes something that we can do in any circumstance, on and off the job. With our patients, our fellow crews, with strangers on the street and our families at home - we can be the difference.
Sometimes there is no direct action, no skill, no medication, no bandage to alleviate the suffering. Sometimes the facta, or the action, is the best of humanity that we bring. The action is the words, the support, the kindness, the empathy. 

What exactly should your actions say to the world? How do you know that your actions will be what’s needed in that moment?
This is where personal code comes in.
You are going to have to know what you stand for. You need to decide, wayyyyy before you leave the station, before you start the shift, even before you start your career - what you want your life to represent, on and off the job. You need to choose what your values and standards will be a responder and as a human, to be in this profession. That way, when it has all been said and it has all been done, you can know you worked with a purpose, you acted courageously and with integrity, when it mattered most. 

We will be talking a LOT about this in the coming year. 

In the meantime, honestly consider this:
On that worst of days, what values would you want in the first responder answering the call to your family member’s emergency? 
As often as you can, as consistently as you can, wherever you go, place those values immediately after the word ‘Be...’

Be respectful.
Be honest.
Be responsible.
Be compassionate. 
Be trustworthy. 
Be kind. 
Be the difference. 
Be that small source of the best of humanity, in the worst of conditions. 


“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

This is a quality of life mission. There is no greater privilege than to be there for someone on their worst of days, to serve. The right thing to do - is right in front of you. 
Make your actions speak louder than your words and I promise you, your life experiences will start to collect compound fulfillment. 

Until next time, 
Facta Non Verba. 

Do > say. 

I can hear you - 
But wait just a minute, I am an Emergency Medical Technician; my career outline is all about skills. All day long I am doing patient assessments, vital signs, trauma care, EKGs, IVs, airways, medication administration - what do you mean there is a limit on skill? 
Well, what I mean is this - we could spend less than an hour to teach a 10 year old the steps and the technique to intubate an airway mannequin, from beginning to end, and she could then score a 10 out of 10 on a skill sheet. 

Tell me I am wrong. 

Skills are simply physical materials moving through space in sequential order to achieve a prescribed outcome. 
There is a limit on skill. 
You can only be so good at these skills. 
(Worse yet, remember that there is a minimum pass margin to earn that patch. After all, competence is the expectation. But that’s for another discussion.)

All of that said, are skills important? Of course they are, they save lives. 
As is the knowledge to wield those skills. The 10 year old above would very likely not know all of the indications to intubate, the parameters of a difficult airway or how to adapt technique for variables in anatomy. That is where higher level training and practicing with intent comes in. When you pair together critical thought with critical skills, you create a force for change.  
High skill proficiency, mental reliability and a dedication to life long learning is something we want in all of our providers. No argument from me. 
​
But, that is not the end of what we need from our providers. 

How we become exceptional as providers, as humans - is though our character. 
Education emphasizes the framework of knowledge, skills and attitude for good reason. 
​
There are people, in real need, on the other side of those skills. The human condition is played out in front of us on every single call. They deserve what too many of us hold back. 
Inside each of us is a limitless capacity for authenticity, empathy, purposeful intent, integrity in our decisions, courage and kindness in our actions. 
Everyday we choose to learn from our experiences, we choose to be patient, passionate and persistent. We choose to be resilient. We do for others the things they cannot do for themselves. 
​A ‘job’ becomes service when we do it with character. 
For all the semesters of time spent on the knowledge and skills of the job, it is time to invest in the attitude of the provider doing the work. 

The goal of Mission Ready has always been to unpack the elements of human character and inject them into first response. We believe better humans make better responders. 
We are committing to this again for 2021. 
Here is a small look ahead at this year’s mission: 

It’s time for a higher professional standard. It’s time to evaluate our convictions, assumptions and values. It’s time to eliminate bias and stereotypes. It’s time to communicate more clearly and to listen more deeply. It’s time to critically think and intensely empathize. It’s time to make purposeful goals for our programs. It’s time to demand individual excellence and system integrity. It’s time to reach outside of our personal comfort with courage and it’s time to lead this profession with empathy. It’s time to be responsible, to learn, to grow and to adapt. 
It’s time to reject being cogs in an outdated machine. 
It’s time to bring more to our work, rather than expecting more from our jobs. 
It’s time to move beyond the expectation and become exceptional. 
It’s time to raise the bar and achieve personal fulfillment in a worthy calling. 

You in? 

You don’t need another article telling you that it has been a difficult year. You certainly don’t need to be told, by the numbers, that the worst is yet to come. 
You’re in the job. You have the marks on your face and the fatigue in your eyes.
This is not a ‘work from home profession.’ It never has been. Trauma, sickness, natural disasters and now a global pandemic; to be in this service line and to answer the call, you have to go out there. 
In fact, here is a cold truth. The most predictable certainty in this unpredictable service is that there is going to be another emergency, another fire, another crash. There are always going to be more in need of help. There is going to be another patient, in fact, thousands of them. 
And there you will be, making things better because you are a part of it. 
It’s what you do. 
The mission does not stop. 

It is worth addressing fear’s role in our lives for a moment, since fear is often viewed as a negative emotion, some kind of limiting agent that should be suppressed at all costs. It is not. Fear, is good. Fear is a primal emotional response that has served us for tens of thousands of years. When we lived in the wild, fear used to save our lives, causing us to run away from deadly encounters and then embedding the survival memory. We are here right now as a species, because of fear. However, we are legacy machines in a modern world. Deadly encounters are no longer the norm in our daily lives, in fact we’re safer and more comfortable than ever; maybe even to a fault. It is likely that we haven’t had to raise our heart rate much above baseline once today to find clean water, or to avoid physical harm or to arrive at any destination that we choose. The remaining haunts in our current lives are merely the shadows of our ancestors’ risks. Modern fears have largely moved inside of our heads. Untamed fears of failure, isolation or rejection, when unchecked, paralyze our operations. What we need to remember is that fear is just data, it is not a directive. As humans we are blessed with a higher brain function that allows us to take perspective. We can consider, analyze and interpret into an actual language what we are observing and measure its actual risks. We can determine its meaning, decide on its intensity and duration. It is in this moment that we realize fear does not limit us, it focuses us. It drives our decisions. Fear is not the opposite of courage; it is the ignition source of courage, and as we will discuss later, an excellent motivator. The true opposite of courage, as matter of fact, is apathy. 
Which brings us back to the epidemic. We were not meant to live this way; timid, indifferent, apathetic, cynical, indecisive. Thousands of generations that evolved through struggle have contributed to the collective conscience and have made us tested and fortunate survivors. Whether you believe that we are ‘feeling beings’ that think or ‘thinking machines’ that feel, we are for sure designed to be out there; doing the hard things, experiencing life, affecting change, failing, learning, adapting, overcoming, creating and serving the tribe. Courage is a human obligation. There is no avoiding the natural law that we get what we give. We deserve nothing, we earn everything. For every human right that we wish to claim as our own, we need to balance it with a contribution back to the group. Yes, just about everything that we face in life will require courage, that inner guidance to act on our beliefs despite some level of risk or disapproval. 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge.”
- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 

​So what? Now what?
How do we develop more courage in our lives?

 - Be more aware
    One of the greatest places to start for more awareness is with some basic gratitude. We are survivors, we are incalculably lucky to be here, be grateful. Next, accept the idea that all challenges improve us, in some way, and the degree of the improvement is fortunately up to us. We should be aware that courage is more than traditional gallantry, it is also confidence, empathy, discipline and vulnerability. Life is hard, but that is what makes it amazing- no grit, no pearl. 

- Treat courage like a muscle
Remember that we choose all of our actions, and courage sits at that conversion point between our thoughts and what we do in life. The best way to develop courage is to step towards the things that we perceive as frightening. Even in the smallest moments, lean into the trials of life, every chance you get. Courage, like a muscle will develop over time. We are massively intelligent, deeply emotional and immensely adaptive hunting platforms that grow when we are challenged, not coddled. Life can only walk all over you if you are laying down. GET UP! 

- Flip the fear
We have an exclusive    intellectual ability as humans – the ability to ask questions. Other mammals have been trained to answer simple questions for a reward, but no other animal can ponder or manipulate a situation mentally like we can. Try taking the fear that limits you and analyze the other side – take a fear of failure and ask yourself, what will happen if I don’t take the risk? Several studies of elderly populations around the world, in several different cultures, revealed a very familiar trend. They all wished: 

• That they had followed their dreams more and did less of what others expected of them
• that they had more courage to speak their mind or express their feelings

There it is, motivation from those that are literally leading the way in life. If you fear it, you likely need to do it for yourself. 

- Set standards 
Standards are simply agreed upon behaviors. Give yourself a set of standards that will act as guiderails through your day. Treat people right, leave it better than you found it, give all in effort, the options here are limitless. Then share them with your team and challenge each other to uphold them and eventually raise them. Just imagine the entirety of first responders constantly moving the goal posts to become better humans. 
​
- Find a courage mentor
Maybe it is someone that you know that has an amazing story of triumph in the face of fear. Maybe it is simply grabbing a book that details the classic stories of sacrifice and courage in the face of adversity. To start your list, check out these incredibly courageous people: Victor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller, William Carpenter, Sophie Scholl, Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai. 
​
- Identify your tribe
There’s a saying – “you can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.” The quality of the characters that we surround ourselves with will have a direct impact on our own character, period. This is one of the ways to raise your bar. Surround yourself with supportive, honest and purposeful colleagues of mixed station in life, to include at least: an equal that will challenge you to improve / someone that you can learn from / someone that you can teach. 

Finally, get comfortable with the fears that you will never be 100% ready, 100% confident or have 100% approval in life – and step onto that field anyway. It will be the moments when we should have reached out, stood up or spoke out, but did not have the courage to act, that we will regret most. Remember that fear is only as problematic as we allow it. Fear is a tool, use it to build yourself up. There is no such thing as being fearless, that would simply be unnatural. But, courage, if you prefer, can be considered super-natural, because we bring it into existence despite fear. Every courageous decision has an impact on the world.
​Choose accordingly, as often as you can, and go be extraordinary. 

Did you just sit up in your seat? Did that bristle you a little bit? Good. Keep reading. 

Let me assure you, if you’re reading this, you are in a very large, very well intentioned group of providers that performs slightly above average, on average. 
Wait, did that just bristle you again? Good. Keep reading. 

We’re called the ‘rule followers’ for a reason. 

• We don’t deviate from protocols. 
• We don’t cowboy our practice without medical command. 
• We don’t pencil whip our checklists, our training, nor our documentation. 
• We don’t cut corners on our assessments, our physical care of the patient nor the safe operation of our particular EMS platform. 

In summary, we do not fit the traditional definition of complacent. Just check our annual reviews - ‘meets or exceeds all expectations.’ Congratulations, you and I have met the expectations. If there was a patch for checking the boxes, we have earned it. 
We arrive on time, we check the rig, we clear our inbox, we attend the meetings, we keep our workplace tidy, we get out the door in a timely fashion, we safely treat and transport our patients. 
We do everything that a paying employer could want from a line EMS provider, check, check, check. No complacency to be seen. 
Unless, you think bigger. 
Consider this - the absence of overt complacency does not mean we are fully engaged. In other words, ‘not cutting corners’ is not enough. 

In a given shift - 
Did we address that cynical provider that cuts down morale or did we just sit quiet?
Did we take the time to learn something new or did we relax in the recliner after completing the checklists?  
Did we take time to mentor the new provider or did we leave that to the ‘education folks?’
Did we bring even a portion of our human values like empathy, kindness or integrity to our interactions with patients or did we just monitor and document?
Did we notice that a fellow provider is emotionally hurting or did we ‘mind our own business?’
Were we, overall, more anti-things or pro-things?
Did we practice professional accountability to improve conditions around us or did we pass it off as “not my job,” “above my pay grade,” or worse yet, “not my problem.”
Did we leave things better than we found them or by staying safely disengaged, did we just promote the status quo?

Do you see where I’m coming from here? 
There is the complacency that we first discussed, the dangerous corner cutting of established practice and safety. This version of complacency is choosing to take the short cuts and choosing to work around the standards. Quite simply, it is choosing to do less. 
Then, there is Complacency 2.0. This complacency is much more insidious, because we feel we are doing the right things already. It’s the stuff that you and I are right in the middle of, and in the long run, it is just as deviant. 
Complacency 2.0 is choosing to not do more. 
We can do better. 
We can be better. 

So, now we are altogether bristled up and uncomfortable. What do we do now?
First, we should start by giving ourselves some credit. After all, you and I are here, we are doing the work, we are getting the job done and what we do matters. 
But, should we settle for participation trophies in a profession that has the potential for so much human impact?
I think we need to acknowledge that there is another level. 
In fact, there is a responsibility in this profession, to not just avoid being complacent, but to do the work to become exceptional human beings. 
After all, isn’t that the kind of provider you would want responding to your family’s emergency?

For us ‘rule followers’ to become exceptional, we must push into some new territory: 

• examine our own standards and then raise them. Expecting more from ourselves is a great start, because no one else has an ‘eye’ on us quite like we do for ourselves. 
• check our convictions, our assumptions, and our actions when they matter most. 
• look for the extra, the one more thing that we can do for each other, for our patients, for our profession. 
• choose to be kinder. The world is full of people that excel at being unkind. Let’s take it the other direction and set an example. 
• listen more; not just to respond, but to really just listen. 
• speak up for the right things. Advocate for those that can’t for themselves. Call out injustice and unfairness. Then, provide ideas for what a better way might look like; be part of the solutions. 
• be there for others.
• be passionately compassionate. 
• be all in, every day, every shift, every call, every patient encounter.
• aim to be the center of the ripple that changes the profession around us. 

It’s quite a goal list, but it’s not even close to the entire list. Being a better provider, a better person, is an infinite objective. It really is about making better choices along the way. 
Is it easy? Somedays no, not at all, because we are often going to find ourselves standing alone as we work to become exceptional human beings. 
Becoming exceptional takes work. It takes consistency. But most of all, becoming exceptional requires the starting point of any significant change - courage. 
I hope to see you next month for a discussion on moral courage - not just one of the virtues, but each of the virtues at their testing point. 

Until then, go be exceptional. 

The patch represents competence, not excellence. 
    Line up a dozen first responders with the same patch on their shoulders and we can declare all of them competent. They passed the course and then the tests and then they were awarded the patch. Competence, check mark. 
Excellence is another level. 
Excellence is the compound made of refined practices and effective human principles.
It is knowing both how to do things right and when to do the right thing. It begins inside of us, in our values and it takes form in the world, through our actions. 
Excellence is the step by step realization of our own potential as both responders and useful humans in a community. Excellence is the property outside of our comfort zones. 
Never stop improving. Never stop learning. Never stop reaching. 

The badge doesn’t speak for us, our actions do. 
    Patches and badges do not embody courage or integrity- our decisions and our actions do. Everyday, every call, every moment in front of another person is that very unique opportunity that this profession affords us - the chance to leave things better than we found them. The chance to make a positive impact on another’s life. Regardless of the uniform or the vehicle we arrive, it is our deeds that will make the difference. 
Commit to never missing that chance. 

The badge is bestowed authority, not leadership. 
    Quite honestly, a given rank does not equate to the ability to lead. True leadership is not a position that is attained, rather, it is a service that is given. 
Leaders inspire and elevate others, they highlight the cause and they take down barriers to allow others to improve themselves. Leadership is not permission to do less, it is a heavy responsibility to do more. 
Having trouble finding leaders around you? Step up, set examples in your work, challenge yourself and your fellow responders. Teach with full respect, listen with deep intent and humbly lead from the middle. 

The job marks out the tasks, not the mission. 
    The mission is to bring the best of humanity to the worst of conditions. This is not easy on any given day. That is why first response is a calling, not a career. This work requires accountability to our neighbors and a commitment to prepare, respond without bias and always be improving. 
Fact - better people make better responders. We need to strive to be the responder we would want answering the call of our own family’s emergency.
    
The patch represents legacy, not completion. 
    Quite simply, we stand on the shoulders of giants. Those before us blazed trails, they discovered, they made a difference, they made mistakes, adapted and pushed forward. When we put on the patch, we are taking our place on this progress path. We now have a duty to move forward, over, around and right through the obstacles and the adversity.
To note, I was very careful to not use the word ‘tradition’ where I used the word legacy, as traditions are often just an excuse for reactions without thought.
Our profession, for sure, benefits from protocols and standardization. But, we must balance this with a strong situational awareness to the effectiveness of our practices. What is working and what is not?  To move forward, we need to observe, assess and adapt. We need to listen to thought, debate with reason and make impactful decisions with all of the information. 
What about our principles? To move forward we need to regularly take out our convictions, and vigorously shake them down to look for unhealthy biases, prejudices and assumptions. “The way we have always done things” doesn’t fly here, when lives are on the line and there is a better process awaiting discovery. There simply are no absolutes. 
All of this leads to one patch, emblematic of a much larger group that faces challenges together, grows through just struggle and rallies to answer the call of those in need. 
This patch does not assume leadership, but rather, inspires us to step forward. 
This patch does not symbolize perfection or completion, but rather a state of constant evolution. This patch does not pretend to have a perfect legacy, but it does provide a powerful glimpse of what is possible. 
This patch represents the encompassing first responder values of purpose, integrity and courage. 
This patch represents service. This patch represents opportunity.
This patch, when it is all said and done, unites us as a profession and as the community we serve.
This patch was made possible by unmeasurable sacrifice. 
​
We should work to earn this particular patch, in and out of uniform, everyday. 

Stay safe everyone and do amazing things. 

What will a teacher’s role look like this year? In short, the workload of our teachers will not be less at all, as has been cynically taunted in social media recently. In fact, the duties and tasks of our teachers going back this year will be larger than most can appreciate and will certainly be more necessary than ever. 
    Reducing class sizes by half and dividing the school weeks into thirds did not reduce a teacher’s workload comparatively, it drove it up almost exponentially, as they now do the work of an entire team. Teachers will be surrogate parents to the children of complete strangers in a pandemic-panicked world. They will be counselors to students that after a half year in lockdown so desperately needed social contact but were instead issued mandatory social distancing. They will be magicians for developing new, in-class and online material simultaneously, as they race to complete curricula on a pace never before seen in modern education. Teachers will be coaches, fundraisers and keepers of the peace. They will be a moral compass one moment and comic relief another. They will be both the architects of the future and the locksmiths to our children’s potential. Then, they will go home to be spouses and parents and magicians all over again to their own families. At the end of the day they will crash to sleep, to get up and do it all over again; all for the love of our kids. 

“The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”
- Charlie Unger

Stressful? Yes. Physical? At times, for sure. Emotional? Always. (Dozens to hundreds of adolescents, duh) Busy? More every year. Busy to the point of mental and physical drain? Definitely yes. Rewarding, fulfilling? Absolutely - and this is the the reason that teachers keep going back for more. 
For a moment, sincerely consider what the school experience provides our youth beyond the traditional subjects; determination, courage, persistence, self-esteem, purpose and compassion- the list goes on. These lessons do not come from posters in the hallway, textbooks or from videos on the internet. They come from the examples, behaviors and direct interactions with American teachers. In fact, teachers are first responders of their own, providing knowledge, values and standards into the future of our society. Our future police officers, paramedics, nurses, judges, tradesmen, investors, realtors, technicians and care givers are all being influenced by today’s teachers. Make no mistake, the load is demanding, the consequences are high. 

“I am convinced that knowledge is power - to overcome the past, to change our own situations, to fight new obstacles, to make better decisions.” 
- Benjamin Carson, MD

So again, isn’t there some kind of symbol that we can use to express our gratitude for those that continue to hold that line between individual human growth and the stagnancy of our society? What color line to we assign a profession that is so vital and encompassing?
Maybe you can take out that graduation tassel that meant so much to you on graduation day. Lay it out in front of you and consider all that it represents in your early years: the line between growth and remaining the same, perseverance and quitting, resilience and doubt, accomplishment and failure. That tassel is a personal achievement, for sure. It’s colors radiate personal pride. You are where you are today because of all the work behind the achievement of that graduation tassel. That, and of course the quiet, empathetic and dedicated hearts of the teachers that supported you along the way. 
That tassel - is their line. 
    
    To the students and teachers of the 2020-2021 school year: Lean on each other, you’ve got this. Do amazing things. 

Jim Green

This entire pandemic experience is going to make us better.
In the end, it will all come down to the decisions we make and the way we choose to move forward.
So here’s a story about my father, boats, and holding our course. 

My dad served in the Navy when he was young and it was beyond obvious to anyone that ever met him, the impact that his sailing experiences had on him. The Navy had left him with a passion for the water.
​From ocean faring on a massive battleship to fishing the local lakes where we grew up, to cruising the mighty and magnificent St. Lawrence River, when we had the time, the water was the place to be. We always had a family boat, from speedy family ski boats to the simplest aluminum fisher. Each boat was bought used, had older model motors and often times after market equipment, but to me, every one of our boats represented the perfect manifestation of proficiency and preparation. 
My dad would equip, maintain and prepare a boat like nothing else. His decades old engines were tuned to perfection. The gas tank was rarely below full and the boat was always clean. Safety items were non-negotiable. There were the standard items like life jackets, ropes, lights and oars, but there was also always spare gas, a hand scribbled parts lists and the most reliable item of all - his tool box.
Yet, beyond the nautical gear, tools and gas, was the true mainsail of our boat life; my old man’s presence. The most valuable nautical asset ever in our family boat was the sum and substance of his experiences, interests and curiosities about the waterways. My dad was a student of the entire process. Maybe that’s why we also call a boat a craft.
​Regardless of a pleasure cruise, a fishing trip or a simple ferrying of camp supplies, he would read the water and the skies continuously. He would study the depths and the shallows, call out the perpetual landmarks on shore and he always gave the known shoals plenty of berth. He knew when to be on the throttle and when to let her skim. In those rare events where nature defied prediction, I always admired the man’s ability to adjust to the storm and navigate on. 

“A ship at harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.”

I can’t help but think some of my family’s best life lessons were drawn from those boat experiences of our youth. There were times to go fast and there were times to go slow. There were moments where all that was reasonable in an unexpected moment was our best reaction, but in the end there was for sure, always time to plan ahead. 
In time, my siblings and I all grew up to pilot boats of our own. ​
We’re learning so many lessons still. 
Piloting a boat is about responsibility forward and accountability backward. Plan for a smooth and safe voyage, but be prepared for the worst. Study your circumstances, adjust to your conditions and learn from your mistakes; and always, always look after those on board in your trust. When you face the chance of stranding yourself and your loved ones far away from shore and it comes down to the decisions that you alone must make, anything worth doing is worth over doing. For sure, nothing is more frightening than getting caught in a raging storm on the open water. But then afterwards, there is nothing more relieving than when a sun beam breaks through those dark clouds to touch the water’s surface as it calms. But, without a doubt, nothing else brings peace like a sunset on the water. To this day there isn’t a better place on Earth for me to feel deep appreciation for life, than under a Saint Lawrence River sunset with my family.

“You can’t cross the ocean without the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

Water craft of any size were simply built to be on the move.
Boats perform best when in full motion, where the resistance of the water lifts them onto plane. In fact, we can only turn a boat and change our direction when it is in motion. Also interesting is the difference between heading and course. You see, boats never truly hold a constant course or ‘line’ to a destination. Rather, the heading of the boat, which is a virtual line that runs down the midline of the boat, sways a few degrees to the right (starboard) and a few degrees to the left (port) as the bow pushes through the waves. This sway occurs constantly, all while moving toward our destination in the distance; much like life.
​We are always making course corrections as we move toward our goals. 
Also as in life, navigating in the dark or in the fog is not impossible, but it is dangerous if you don’t have clear waypoints or fail to stay true to your plan. In fact, it is more successful when you have others to help you navigate on the way. 
In regard to others, when on the water, we should show respect to every other boater that we encounter and expect that they could be that one boat that comes upon us when we need help most. We may all be in separate water craft, but we’re all on the same water. 
At its core, boating is not a competition - where we measure ourselves against the other captains and pilots at the launch. Boating is about being a better mariner than our previous voyage. 
To a captain, the water, wind and waves are the simultaneous challenge and prize; the resistance and the reward. Piloting a boat is a multi sensory experience of attention, learning, appreciation, exploration, accountability and wonder all at once. It’s a place to challenge ourselves and strengthen character.
If you can’t yet tell, I love the parallels of a boating experience, to life as we currently face it.

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” 

​John F. Green - USN 1951, 19 years old

Jim Green