Bjerk Builders

Built Dffrnt: The Guy Holding The Knife

The Guy Holding the Knife Napoleon Hill, and the book that sat in a drawer for 73 years. The hero is you. The guy with the knife is also you. And the most dangerous moment is right after things start working. Twenty-five years ago I had it going. Young, work was good, I was building […]

Built Dffrnt: 3 Ways to Slay a Dragon

Why Don’t You Just Pull Over: 3 Ways to Slay It – #1 from Michael Phelps. Responsibility is a superpower. Until it becomes the dragon driving the bus off a cliff. Here is something I have learned over the years. Adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes often end up over-responsible. Not lazy, […]

Built Dffrnt: Who’s In Your Room?

Who’s In Your Room Money, and the Room You Build In. On money, and the one thing Napoleon Hill found behind almost every great fortune – and it was not brains. A hundred years ago, Napoleon Hill spent decades studying five hundred of the most successful people alive: steel titans, inventors, presidents. He went looking […]

Built Dffrnt: The Thief In My Pocket

The Thief in My Pocket Deep Work, and What Steals It. There is a thief in my pocket. It does not take money. It takes the one thing I can never get back. In a world built to distract you, the ability to focus has quietly become a superpower. A computer scientist named Cal Newport […]

Built Dffrnt: Where Are You Looking?

Phase 3 begins. A mountain bike, a ten-year habit, and why systems beat goals every time. When I started teaching my son Austin to mountain bike, rule number one was simple: the bike, like life, goes where you are looking. Out on the trail here in the desert, if you fix your eyes on the […]

Built Dffrnt: See It. Own it. Build it.

See it. Own it. Build it. Months of letters in three words, and how they stack into what comes next. A champion is not the most talented person in the room. A champion is the one who sees clearly, owns completely, and builds relentlessly. Everything we have done for months has been building exactly that, […]

Built Dffrnt: Can You Dance In The Rain?

On a Phoenix Cardinals coach, a boy named Johnny, and the kind of gratitude that does not change your storm, it changes you. I catch myself complaining more than I would like to admit. When I do, I think about a coach named Gene Stallings, and it snaps me right out of it. Stallings coached […]

Built Dffrnt: Can You Take The Heat?

On the Phoenix cop who woke from a coma swinging, and the courage it took to face what was hiding under the anger. Years ago, working for our county hospital, I spent real time at the Arizona Burn Center. That is where I met Jason Schechterle, one of the bravest men I have ever known. […]

Built Dffrnt: The Four P’s

The Four P’s On perfectionism, paralysis, and the six months it took me not to make one phone call. Have you ever found yourself stuck? I know I have.  For instance, I have not called my kids’ godparents in months. Not because I do not love them. Because I could not make the call perfect […]

Built Dffrnt: Standing On Her Shoulders

Standing On Her Shoulders Larry Fitzgerald goes into the Hall of Fame this weekend. The best of him was never the catches. It was a promise to his mom. For seventeen years, when number 11 went up to get the ball in the desert, an entire stadium roared the same name. Laaaarry. This weekend, Larry […]