Top O’ The Morning Mis Amigos,

I hope summer is treating all of you well.

It’s been a bit of a battle to check in with y’all as my life seems to be moving at a million miles as I’m sure many of yours are. But let’s kick it for ol’ times sake…

• While one can spend hundreds of thousands on university degrees and professional designations, it is important to realize how many awesome and free resources there are online. I came across a series called “30 Days of Genius“, a project spearheaded by Chase Jarvis -> a successful entrepreneur, artist, photographer and director. Basically, he interviews 30 of the most innovative and creative entrepreneurial minds on the planet and films each one. Then one video is e-mailed to your inbox every morning for a month. We’re talking big names: Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Brene Brown, James Altucher, the list goes on. The series is kicked off with Mark Cuban. If you yourself are an entrepreneur, definitely tune into the last 15 minutes of the first episode. Pretty thought provoking and contrarian advice.

• Cabot Cliffs was just named the #1 course in Canada with the Links in at #4. If you’re a golf nut, put this on your bucket list pronto. Accommodations are already booking into 2017! Here is a feature on the course courtesy of The Globe & Mail titled “Eastern Promises: Cape Breton’s Case to Become Canada’s Hamptons“.

• Have you heard of the marketing genius, Seth Godin (I mentioned him above)? How about his concept of the The Gulf of Disapproval? I don’t think there is a better analogy as it relates to driving change in your corporate office or bringing a start-up to market. If you’re struggling to enact change in whatever role or mission you find yourself working on, remember to count on the blue line instead!

• Words of wisdom courtesy of the YouTube channel Be Inspired… My favorite line from the video goes something like this “every morning when you wake up, you have a choice. Hit the snooze button and keep dreaming. Or get up and start turning your dreams into reality“. I hope you got up at the crack of dawn this morning, are reading this now, and absolutely crushing this fine Wednesday! And if you’re not, remember, it’s Hump Day, so have a laugh and hit the reset button.

In closing, the world lost a good man far too soon at the end of July in Bob Scott – a dear friend of the Wilkes family and many other families in Calgary and Edmonton. To many he was known as Wadd or Fun Bobby. There are funny people and then there was Wadd. He could light up any room with his wit and zest for people. My fondest memory of Bob was at my Grandpa’s memorial golf tournament – The RT Open – a couple years ago. Bob started a tradition called “Baskets by Wadd” where he would handcraft a gift basket full of god knows what and then present it to one lucky participant. Wadd would get up in front of all the guys and go through every item and why he chose it… Two years ago, his gift basket revolved around this hilarious informercial of an auto shop in Los Angeles, Arlen’s Transmission. Don’t ask me how Wadd found this clip as inspiration for his gift basket but it’s a memory that always brings a smile (and maybe a happy tear) to my face. I can vividly remember the stomach ache and tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard at this one basket in particular. We’ll miss you Wadd.

Song of the Week: We’re dedicating it to our friend and loyal Mailbag reader, Bob Scott. “Fire and Rain” – James Taylor.

Quote of the Week: “If you admire somebody you should go ahead and tell em’. People never get the flowers while they can still smell them.” – Kanye West

Thanks For Reading,

Mike