My creativity started with an etch-a-sketch and some Lincoln Logs. I didn’t know what technology was, but I quickly moved on to Erector Sets. I remember chasing girls with "pincher" bugs around the gravel playground at about age seven.

I learned a lot about acoustics and particle mechanics in 4th grade. I liked to slam a large red rubber dodge ball onto the ceramic walls and floor of the boy’s bathroom studying the echoes and screeches.

I clearly recall a lunchtime demonstration where I surprised all my classmates by breaking the glass ceiling light globe into thousands of pieces. With a ‘POP!’, Buzzz and FLASH, followed by a horrific crashing sound, glass shards scattered around the entire yellow room, sticking in the horrified onlookers hair. It turns out, I later learned the same experiment in high school physics by dropping a high density, low mass object of minimal elasticity onto a larger mass object of high elasticity. The kinetics are really GREAT!

In fifth grade I discovered how to blow up the boys room plumbing with 'sodium' from the science lab. If you dropped chunks of the dull silver metal into the urinal and flushed it immediately, its sound was really cool – until I noticed the walls were oozing water where the plumbing had ruptured.

In sixth grade I learned that being ‘artistic’ made you the 'teachers pet'. That meant you didn't get picked to play softball at lunch. There were social repercussions of talent?

In High School, I learned about bungee jumping from the Football field announcers tower from an eccentric physics professor that often left his fly unzipped. Maybe it was the results of having been hit by lightening while experimenting with radio antenna?

I have been a thirsty student as long as I can remember. I've learned from coaches and teachers in hundreds of books. I've also learned to find real-life mentors and from all of them, I’ve learned to listen to my ‘knower’ – practicing when to dodge, swerve, duck, stop, turn and speed up - and - to be patient.

I learned vision, leadership and celebration from Graham Kerr, the “The Galloping Gourmet”. I’ve learned humility, service and compassion from Dean Rush, former American Airlines V.P.

I’ve learned that life is short and precious from

Apollo Astronauts James Irwin and Charlie Duke. I’ve learned perseverance and respect through windsurfing, flying hang-gliders and sailplanes, skiing with World Cup winners and cycling with Olympic cyclists.

Homer showed me that men are yet the same. Dickens taught me to see “boots yawning before a open fire”. Newton, Galileo and Einstein taught me that knowledge skips the discovering generation.

Through a lifetime of learning, I've found that we are more than our accumulation of knowledge. We are rich with experience, and plagued by our imagined fears. We’re immobilized without knowing our capabilities and we are each our best challenge.

To summarize; my life has been a series of best efforts in honoring God, investing in people, creating memories with loved ones like my children David and Carissa and my wife Angelina Musik, and being aware that each moment is an opportunity to 'Make a Difference'.