Good morning!

Yesterday afternoon, I returned an item at Best Buy. While at the customer service counter, a gaggle of middle school kids walked in and immediately began disrupting the quiet. The store manager happened to be waiting on me and he calmly spoke into his lapel mic, “These are the kids I threw out of the store last week. Let’s encourage them to leave.”

And that’s what happened.

The manager gave me a, “kids these days” look, and then went back to the job of finding me a replacement ice maker. My reply caused him to look at me curiously: “They’d make great salespeople.”

My wife and I have been watching the HBO show, “The Pitt,” which had its last episode this past Thursday. It is said to be the most realistic depiction of emergency room life and somewhere along the line I came to the conclusion it was time for me to donate blood for the first time.

<<inhale, exhale>> Needles!

The website for the American Red Cross acknowledges the number one roadblock people face when they think about the experience—fear—and goes on to list all the benefits and good that happens if people are just willing to overcome.

Those kids who crashed into Best Buy and then literally broke the door on the way out, while obnoxious and annoying, were fearless. People who give blood are fearless.

And people who contact strangers and hawk their goods are fearless.

Are you afraid of interrupting someone’s day? Then make sure you have something of value to say. Are you afraid of rejection? Reframe it as one positive step to “yes.” Are you afraid of failure? It’s only failure if you are not trying your hardest. Are you afraid you are the only one having these negative feelings and feeling this fear? Nope. Not even close.

Be brash. Be bold. Be brave. Make the calls. Make the calls. Make the calls.

And give blood. 100% of your donation goes to the cause.